


Dust

by Bonsaiiiiiii



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: F/M, If you're uncomfortable with it please don't read this story, Original Story - Freeform, This story contains mature themes and strong language, there is swearing in here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22895875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bonsaiiiiiii/pseuds/Bonsaiiiiiii
Summary: Alice wakes up suddenly in a fire. But how did she get there? She only remembers getting involved in an earthquake...Discover it reading!THIS IS MY ORIGINAL STORY, PLEASE SUPPORT
Relationships: Virgil Tracy/Original Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. How did I get here?

Dust.

Once I opened my eyes dust was all I could see.

I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't smell anything.

_Strange. When I closed my eyes I was...trembling._

I looked around me and saw an immense quantity of flames.

Then all of my sleeping senses came to life. The suffocating smoke that pervaded my lungs; my eyes that watered profusely; my leg stuck in something too heavy for me to lift, and my skin burning. The sound of the flames creeping towards me resonated inside my ears and skull, making me feel dizzy.

And then the fear hit me. The fear of being stuck. The fear of never getting out alive from here. The fear of not getting back to my parents.

_A fire?! What is happening in here?!_

Then I remembered what happened.  
There was an earthquake, one of very big dimensions; it wiped away everything.  
I remember some professor calling the ambulance, people going out, I was going too but my leg was stuck. I remained there as everyone came out.  
I could hear the screams of...was it Nicole? My best friend Nicole? And the others too..ambulances..then I remember closing my eyes.

I looked better around me and I wasn't at school anymore, or to better say it didn't look like a school, more like an abandoned building. I couldn't hear the sirens of the ambulance or the screaming of the people outside.

I couldn't move, so I was still stuck for sure. I tried to look out of the broken windows, starting to breathe badly for the smoke, and I saw the stars.

_Stars?!_

I tried to remember what time did the earthquake happened, and what I remembered didn't match the time I was on.

_Wasn't 12 am when everything started..?_

A solid 5 minutes later I could hear some voices, or only one voice, I couldn't quite understand, coming towards me. I tried to scream to make my presence noticeable, and the result was a cough attack.

Eventually the person (or the people) heard me and moments later I was in the arms of a man. I think he was speaking to me, but I was so confused I couldn't hear him. Everything I saw was a helmet covering the face of the man, and a hint of green in background.

He took me outside and finally I could breathe some fresh air. I looked up, and saw the stars, along with a yellow-ish light in the background, the fire raging and moving behind me, burning my back.  
The man then took me to a ship, but I couldn't see anything, I was so sleepy, I eventually closed my eyes, entering a sweet-scented place. I could feel something cold pervading my skin, but I didn't have the force to open my eyes anymore. I just want to sleep...

And with that, I entered a sweet lullaby.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

I could feel again the air in my lungs, but I didn't understand why I didn't have air anymore in the first place.

I opened my eyes, still confused and pained for everything, and I could see the mouth of the mouth of the man that rescued me on top of mine. I didn't have the time to process what happened because I closed my eyes again and moments later I started breathing on my own.

In that moment I felt my mouth free again; if it wasn't for that sensation I swore I would've imagined it.

I slowly opened my eyes again, and the first thing I saw was a pair of brown eyes watching me; it was a type of brown that warms you inside, that could enter your mind and read your soul. And then I heard a voice, one of the most beautiful and deepest I've ever heard:

"Are you alright?"

I just stayed there, watching him. I have no idea who he is, but I’m sure he just saved my life.

I slowly sat upright, massaging my head that was hurting, then I nodded slowly, giving him a weak "Yeah. Who are you?"

"I'm Virgil Tracy, International Rescue. And you are...?" He asked, looking at me warmly.

"Um, my name is Alice."

"Pleased to meet you."

"My pleasure.. The earthquake...but are they all okay? Have you already evacuated them?" I mumbled, more to myself than to him.

He looked at me badly. "Everyone? Everyone who? And then what earthquake? You just got out of a domestic fire, and you were the only one in that building, abandoned for years also. Are you sure to be alright?"

"Yes..just my leg hurts, but..I don’t think it’s anything serious.."

"Well, I’ll take you to the nearest hospital to check-in-"

I immediately widened my eyes, looking at him in panic.

"A hospital? No! I’m fine, really-" I interrupted him, but he was faster than me.

"If you don’t want to go to a hospital, I can check up on you. Don’t worry, I have a license, I know how to do it."

I was quiet for a second. "Okay."

So he started examining me, checking my leg first to see if there were any serious injuries. Then he monitored my pulse and blood pressure, nodding his head when he saw that everything was normal. I also had some injuries on my forehead, so he checked there to see if anything was wrong.

After a while he turned to me smiling. "Well, you don’t have any serious injuries, apart from your right leg; your fibula fragmented and also came out, so you’ll have a complete open fracture. Can you do me a favor and hold still while I try to put the bone back in, or at least cover the wound?"

I nodded slowly with my head. He quickly checked my leg, then he turned to me. "Look, I’m gonna put the bone back in; it’s gonna hurt a lot, so don’t move and try to hold on until I’m done."

"Okay. I wanted to apologize.."

He looked at me for a second. "And for what?"

"Well, I didn’t want to go to the hospital, and I’m wasting up a lot of your time.." I closed my eyes slightly, but I opened them again immediately when he put his hand on my shoulder.

"You don’t have to worry about that. You don’t have to feel obligated to go to a hospital if you don’t feel like it. International Rescue also takes care of this: making people feel comfortable. You’re already in a particular situation..let's not add fuel to the fire."

I smiled at him, then closed my eyes again. He took my leg and my bone, forcing the second one back into my leg. I squeezed my eyes hard, trying to make as little noise as possible; I have a very high tolerance to pain, but I had never experienced this kind of pain before.

He looked at me when I was done. "Wow, you really have a great tolerance for pain! Anyway, I’m done."

"Thank you."

"No problem. Where do you live anyway?"

I closed my eyes, trying to remember, to then say:

"Umm, I live in California, Bay City, 16th street."

"Okay, I will take you there. If you want to feel comfortable you can sit here in the co-pilot seat. Be lucky, 'cause I never let one of my guests sit on there."

I nodded sitting near him and buckling myself, while my head was wondering.

_He's very handsome...and what a cool name..._

During the trip we talked a bit of life and other irrelevant things, and after a sequence of irrelevant things I looked out of my window and I saw the familiar street that always takes me to my home. I smiled, wondering what my mom would have thought if I got home on board of a big ship unless going by bus like always.

_Now that I think about it, I've never seen this ship around, nor this man, and if he saves people he should be on the news or something. I've never heard of him.._

Then my house entered my vision range.


	2. Timelapse

When the ship stopped I got down faster than light to meet with my mom; in that moment I didn't care if I was covered in dust or whatever that was, I just wanted to tell her that I was alright.

But in that moment I took a better look at the house, and it seemed so...empty.

Maybe just my imagination.

I thought, as I approached the house, limping because of the broken leg. But when I touched the door to open it, it fell at my feet. I got back just in time for the door to not fall on myself, losing the balance and falling backwards.

Virgil took me just in time, putting me up on my feet and making me lean on him. I smiled, but it didn't reach my eyes; I was too worried about what happened to my home. I moved around the house, calling my mom's name multiple times, but I didn't receive an answer. Now I was getting really worried.

What the hell is happening?! This is so different, seems like I moved in time! Ahah, moving in time...I'm getting really insane!

While I was immersed in my thoughts Virgil's voice came again at me from behind.

"Are you really sure that you are alright?"

I turned back too fast even for my liking.

"Yes! Why do you keep asking me that?!"

I snapped at him, feeling a familiar pang of panic. He widened his eyes for a moment, to then smile sympathetically at me.

"Well, because this house has been abandoned for a lot of time."

When I heard this I started laughing nervously.

"What do you mean abandoned? I lived there until yesterday! Until...today..."

I trailed off, putting a shaking hand on my mouth.

"Yeah, I can't tell you the precise time when it happened, but I think that it was thirty or forty years ago..in..2020 I think?"

When I heard that date, I looked at him for a long time, then I asked him the question that has been taunting my mind since I entered in my house.

"In what year are we now?"

He looked at me for a bit, then he smiled and said: "In 2060. But why are you asking me that? It seems like I told you God knows what."

⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱⏱

2060\. I am in 2060. God freaking 2060. Nothing mattered anymore: not the fact that I was found in a fire or the pain in my leg. I had only one question, or well, two questions I kept screaming in my mind: How? And especially, Why? I looked at the ceiling.

"What happened with the owner of this house?"

Virgil looked again at me after wandering his eyes around the house.

"Well, from what I heard the owner, a woman, disappeared after her daughter disappeared in an incident-"

"An earthquake." I said, not letting him finish.

He nodded suspiciously, to then say:  
"Yeah, a very bad one. The mother couldn't accept the fact that her daughter disappeared in thin air, so she moved away after searching her, and she died a bit after the incident for the grief."

Then the realization hit me: I don't have a home, I'm alone. Still with my eyes on the ceiling, that started to water with tears, I asked this question to God or whoever it was: why, why did you send me here? I have nothing to do here, and I don't want to see this strange 'destiny' that happened for my fault. While I was screaming this inside my mind I sensed two hands grabbing lightly my shoulders.

"I really doubt that you live here-" Yes, yes I am! "-but if you wanted to come here in this abandoned house there must be a reason." The reason is that I LIVE here! "So, are you a familiar of them?"

"No, I'm the disappeared girl!"  
This time didn't stay in my mind and preferred to come out of my mouth. Virgil started laughing.

"Yeah, sure..." He doesn't believe me!  
I wandered around the house, searching for a photo of me, and finally I found one: the day of my graduation, in the arms of my mother. I looked a bit at the photo to then pass it to him.

"Look at that girl and tell me if you note a difference between her and me!" He looked at the photo for a bit, to then look at me with wide eyes.

"Identical.." he bumbled "but how is that possible?"

"Trust me, if I knew I'd told you, but I don't know how and why. I don't belong to this timeline, and that's for sure."

"Everything clicks now. That's why you were talking about am earthquake when I rescued you!"

"Yeah...I was trapped in there. Do you...believe me now?"

"It's strange to hear that, but with everything that happens nowadays, yes, I believe you. So you don't have a home.." I looked at him; now he was pacing around from the last sentence, I think..slightly embarrassed?

"Yeah, you can say that. Listen, drop me to a hotel or something, then I'll manage for myself-"

"What!? No! Do you have any money on you?"

Now that I thought about that, I left my wallet inside the bag in my class. Well, shit.  
"No, I left my wallet in the bag, in my class, probably dispersed."

Virgil opened his mouth to say something, but then something beeped; he excused himself for a second to then go out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one! Yay~♡


	3. Tracy Island

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will have 2 different POV's. One from Virgil and one from Alice. Enjoy!

Virgil's POV

I wanted to tell her that she could live on Tracy Island, but my comms started beeping, signalling that my brothers were calling me.

I excused myself at Alice to then go out while she was looking at me curiously with a pinkish tone on her cheeks. While I was getting out of the house I was wondering why I dismissed her idea of staying in an hotel so quickly.

I wasn't certainly the type of person to attach myself to people I never met in my entire life, especially strangers, but with her it was different...I seemed attached to her, and her story was a very strange one, that picked my curiosity. So why let her live on Tracy Island if I never met her??

I cleared my throat, dismissing temporarily my thoughts, and answered the comms.

"Thunderbird 5 to Thunderbird 2, what's the situation? Did you rescue that person caught in the fire?" John was the first one to speak, like always.

"Oi bro, are you fine? You are so pale.." Alan's voice jumped in. Ah, I forgot that Alan was on a system check on TB5.

Am I pale? I thought as I watched the hologram on my wrist.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine. Listen guys...the girl I rescued..she exactly doesn't have a home, she's in a...particular situation." I spoke, rubbing my neck sheepishly.

John stayed in silence for a moment, to then answer with a: "tell Scott, I can't do anything." Like always.. I thought, dismissing John and calling Tracy Island.

"Yes Virg?" The first one to answer was Gordon.

"Gord, where is Scott? I need to talk to him." I said, emphasizing the 'Gord'.

"Wait a sec..here he comes!"

"What is it, Thunderbird 2?" Scott appeared from the side, along with Brains. "Sorry, we were doing some upgrades to TB1."

"Scott, listen, the girl I rescued.." I started, but I was interrupted by Scott.  
"Is she alright? Does she need medical assistance?"

"Yes, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. She made me stop to an abandoned house, and I found it strange. But then..in that house there was a family with a woman and her daughter, the daughter disappeared in a earthquake and the mom died short after. It was all over the news, I saw that case this morning on the news. They're still searching for the girl."

"Yes, I saw it too. So? The girl knows something about this family?"

"Yes, but also no. The girl, Alice, claims to be the disappeared girl of 40 years ago."

Scott stayed silent for a long time, too long for my taste. Then Brains cleared his throat, then spoke.

"Strange, but interesting. I didn't think that honestly something like that could happen, but I would like to make some studies on that, if that is possible."

I admit I was a bit surprised of Brains' answer, but eventually I nodded.   
"Yeah, but I have to ask her."

"Take her to Tracy Island. If she's a danger for our family we will find a way to wipe her memory away and take her somewhere else." Scott said after his big moment of silence.

"You sure?" I said. He nodded. "Ok then, we will take off now, will call you when we land."

I closed my comms with a tap and made my way back into the house, putting on my best smile.

💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫

Back to Alice's POV

I was looking at the remaining photos all around the room that used to be my living room, when Virgil entered back, grinning.

"Guess who comes with me at home? Well, until you find one. And there's someone that would like to meet you."

I widened my eyes instantly, but then I thought about it.

There has to be a trick somewhere, he practically doesn't know me! Why would he want me to enter in his house?

And since I'm an open mind that always speaks to avoid unnatural questions, I asked him directly.

"Um, yeah, but why do you really want me to go with you? You just learned my name - and maybe what happened to me, but I don't think you would let a stranger in your house just because of that. I mean, I would love to, but I assume there had to be simply a reason, that's all." I said, putting one hand on my waist. He looked at me to then nod.

"Well, that person that wants to meet you, he is a scientist, and listening to what happened to you he wanted to do some research on you, that's all. And, with that you can know more about what happened to you and how did you 'teleport', right?"

I listened to him, thinking about it for a moment, to then say: "Yeah, I think you're probably right.."

Virgil smiled at me. "Ok, let's go then!"  
He took my hand, and helping me we got out of the house.

When we were out I noticed for the first time the ship I came on. It was very big and green, and the number 2 was very recurrent; wherever I put my eyes on a part of the ship there was at least a '2' printed on it, and also the word 'THUNDERBIRD' imprinted at both sides of the ship.

Wow, the outside and the inside of this ship are two different worlds!

While I was observing in awe the big ship he presented me to his 'girl's, then we got in and took off from my house, me sitting on the co-pilot seat again.

"So...where do you live?" I asked smiling.

"Well.." he thought for a moment "..in a villa!"

"Wow, and where?" I asked again; the curiosity is eating me alive.

"You'll see when we land."

"Okay then." I said smiling, looking put of the portal. A few minutes passed until I looked again at the portal, but I saw nothing else than the sea.

I furrowed my eyebrows. The sea?! He lives in the middle of the sea?!

I looked with more attention, and I saw that there were some islands, and we were approaching one of them. At this point I couldn't contain myself anymore, and I turned towards Virgil that was talking to the video of a ginger head.

"You live on an island?"

He dismissed the ginger, turning towards me with a smile. "Yes!" Was his pure and simple response as we were landing. "Welcome officially to Tracy Island!"


	4. Scott

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sassiness ahead, lmao

We finally landed, and eventually we got out of the ship.

"First of all you need medical assistance, so we'll head to the medical bay. Don't worry, it's not an hospital. But can I ask why are you so afraid of them?" He turned to me, looking at me.

"Well, it's a little secret." I said in a bittersweet tone. I didn't want to talk about that, especially now that I am in this condition, but he insisted.

"Come on, I promise I won't tell anyone."

But I shook my head. "It won't be a secret anymore if I tell you. Come on, please make way to the medical bay."

He smiled to then take me there; he took better care of my leg and other superficial bruises on my arms, and I have to admit he was pretty good, maybe he did some medical school or something.

After that, he took me upstairs to meet with his family and then get some rest, and saying that I was nervous was an misunderstanding, because I was terrified, even if I didn't know why I made such a big deal out of it.

Finally, after a bit of courage and panting to get to the end of the stairs I finally entered the living room.

Bish what, this living room is bigger than my entire house! And my house was pretty big indeed! If this is only a part of the house I wonder what everything else is!

Virgil came near me a moment later, he changed out of his uniform in his ordinary clothes, and if I have to be honest he was to be dying for in that flannel shirt. I smiled at him and made my way into the house, bumping almost immediately into an old woman.

"Oh my gosh, excuse me! I didn't pay attention to where I was going!" I immediately apologised. If there's one thing that my Nonna taught me, is that I always have to be gentle with old people; the neighborhood oldies always reward me with food, so maybe this Nonna too can feed me- okay, I'm getting hungry.  
The old lady smiled, patting me on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, it's alright! Hi fella, my name is Sally, but feel free to call me Grandma like the boys here; I don't think that you're dangerous like the others say. Now, let's discover why nobody told me of your arrival!" She raised her voice intently, shouting to be heard by...the boys? How many of them are here?

"Because you would have cooked, grandma." A man with a blue shirt said, approaching us from somewhere remote.

He stopped in front of me, looking at me sternly. I looked back with confidence, head high and a little smirk on my face, not daring to blink; Nonna said that I have to be gentle only with oldies, I already don't vibe with this man, and I'm certainly not afraid of him.

Nonna Tracy looked back and forth between us, not daring to interrupt our stare contest. The man narrowed his eyes, then blinked. Uhh, I won! Ooh yeah, I won! Who's the best, huh?

"Nice to meet you, my name is Scott. And you're Alice, correct?" He said with a stern tone.

"Yeah, I-"

"Keep in mind that I'm watching you, and if I consider you a danger I won't hesitate in kicking you out of here, despite what Virgil says." He interrupted me with a death glare.

"Keep watching me, then! Photos bleach with time." I rolled my eyes. Nope, he definitively doesn't vibe with me.

Grandma mouthed a 'boom' with a wide smile, while Scott flinched, losing for a second his composed face, to then return serious, narrowing his eyes. "You've been advised."

"I know, I'm not hard of hearing." I've always been known as a big mouth, but what can I do? I like to stand my ground, to let him know that I won't submit to him just because I'm in his house. "And for the record, if I would be dangerous, don't you think that I would have done already something? And then I'm injured."

"I told you, you've been advised."

"Do whatever you want." I said irritated, finishing the discussion there.

Grandma took this moment to slap playfully his grandson on the shoulder.

"For the record, I don't cook that bad, stop it!" He shook his head laughing, and she laughed too with him.

The memory of me and my grandparents joking together flooded back in my mind, making me smile melancholy.

I heard another voice, this one was very loud and caught me by surprise.

"Hello thereeeeeeeee!" A blondie with brown eyes approached me, jumping from the stairs. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Gordon!"

"I'm Alice, happy to meet you too!" I said, letting out my hand for him to take. He was about to take it, when a pillow came flying from an unknown direction and directly in Gordon's face, sending him to the floor.

I laughed, then I did the funniest thing I could ever do: I knelt at his side, taking his hand in mine and shaking it vigorously.  
When I got back up a blondie with a green shirt approached me.

"Hello! I'm Alan. Sorry for this dude."

"Don't worry!" I said happily, shaking his hand too.

Uhm, so he has 3 brothers..

My thoughts were interrupted when a table near me started beeping. I looked at it with furrowed eyebrows, approaching it, when a figure dressed up in blue appeared from nowhere. I retreated a little to then laugh.

"Sorry for scaring you. Also nice to meet you, I'm John." He said smiling.

"Nice to meet you too! I'm Alice!" I'm getting bored of saying this; also he has 4 brothers, a very big family! But apart from their nonna, where are their parents..? Also where is the scientist that wanted to see me?

After the presentations, and a mental note to get a post-it to write their names on them and attaching them to each brother to remember the name, Scott came near me with his usual face. I backed up a bit, crossing my hands.

"Ok, I think we presented each other, but you missed 2 persons: Kayo and Brains. Kayo is training right now and Brains is in his laboratory doing some tests, but they will both come down here for dinner. Anyways, I'm cooking dinner tonight, so is lasagna good for all of you?"

They all nodded, but I immediately raised my hand. He turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm intolerant lo gluten, and lasagna has pasta in it, so I can't eat it."

He struggled to contain a huff that threatened to get out, then talked to me without looking at me. "So, is meat and salad good for you?"

"Yes."

"Good, then I'm going to cook." Good, he will surely poison my dinner tonight.


	5. Kayo

At dinner I met with Kayo, the only girl around my age in this family -maybe their sister?- and Brains, the scientist that wanted to see me.

"S-so you're Alice?" He said, stumbling with the words, extending his hand for me to shake.

"Yeah, and you're Brains..right?"

"Y-yes. Thank you for coming, I know it sounds strange w-when a stranger invites you in their house.."

Ah, don't worry, it's okay. Anyways, if you start asking me questions about what happened I don't even know, so I won't know the answers to most of your questions."

"D-don't worry, we will find these answers, trust me." _Oh, it sounds more like a threat._

After dinner we sat a bit on the couches in the living room, where they asked me to tell them more about my life and my preferences.

I started on telling them of my life in general. "I'm born in South Korea, from Korean father and Italian mother. When I was 7 I had to move to Italy for...personal problems, and while my mom was working overseas I stayed with my grandparents. I learned Italian and consecuted my studies there, and after I graduated high school I moved in California where my mother stabilized; I started medical college, and I was in my last year, but then all of this happened and I didn't have the chance to finish my studies. I'm done with my life, so...ask me whatever you want."

Gordon raised his hand excitedly. "What is your favorite color?"

I didn't have to think. "Purple! Yours?"

They all responded to me with their favourite colors, and the night went on this way, with asking and answering all along. We made 3am talking about various things, all of us apart from Scott that headed upstairs just after dinner.

One thing that I noticed that they were explicitly avoiding the 'mom and dad' argument. I didn't tell them about my dad either, I don't want these bad memories to come back to me. Sure, they asked me, but I didn't answer, also because I asked them too and they didn't answer, so..

Then they asked me when I was born, and I simply answered: "well, in 1st February! 1st February 2000!"

I was smiling, because we were in 25th of Jan, and that means that I will get 21 in 6 days! But the smile quickly disappeared from my face when I saw the expression on everyone's faces: everyone was terrified, like I just explained that I could see demons, except from Kayo and Brains that were the face of absolute confusion, like mine, and were looking back and forth between the boys.

I immediately averted my gaze, looking at the floor with a sad face. _Why do I feel so bad..?_

Kayo, that was sitting near me, put a hand on my shoulder, looking at me with the ghost of a smile on her lips. I smiled back at her to then look again at the floor.

In that moment John cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. We were looking at his saddened holo-face, when he turned to me slowly.

"Well...sorry for the reaction, but...your birth date is the same as a dear person in our family...our mom.." after he said that, everything fell silent.

I looked at him, then at the others; everyone had a pained expression on their faces, apart from Virgil, that was the pure portrait of pain, and Kayo and Brains, that were wearing a face full of compassion and knowledge. _I guess that nobody in that family told them about the great Mom and Dad._

_But it's not my fault._

"I'm sorry for your loss, but I don't think that my birthday is my fault; I was born in that day, and if I make you remember of your mom I'm sorry, but I can't do anything about it, and I think all of you know that, right?"

Virgil got up immediately, nodding imperceptibly to then get out to the balcony, nonna following him outside.

"Now, if you excuse me, I want to get to bed. It's been a long stressful day, I'm hurt and I'm sleepy. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here and how did I arrive there, so excuse me if I behave that badly."

Kayo immediately took again my shoulder. "It's understandable you're feeling like that; in fact we're all sleepy, and if we sleep this day off we'll all feel a little better tomorrow. So, go everyone!" She clapped her hands repeatedly, distracting everyone from their saddening slumber, making all of them scoot upstairs to their bedrooms. Then she turned to me. "You'll be sharing with me tonight; your room is still in...development, if we want to put it that way, and until it's done you will sleep with me. Is that okay?"

"As long as I get some sleep." I said, rubbing my eyes; my gut feeling made me turn towards the balcony Virgil stormed off to. I looked at it for a few seconds, to then turn back to Kayo, following her upstairs.

In a moment we got to her room.

"This is my room. I left some clothes for you, feel free to use the bathroom anytime you want. And that-" she pointed to a little bed in a corner of the room "-that is your bed. Sorry if it's not too big and comfortable, but until your room is done you'll have to stay in it."

"Don't worry! It feels cozy enough to me! It's perfect like that, thanks for everything."

"Anytime! I'll go meditate now, but I'll be here later. If you get asleep until I get back here, then goodnight!"

"Nighty!"

She smiled, getting put and closing the door behind her.

I took that moment to look better at her room: the first impression that it gives is a big and comfy room, and a thing that I noticed was that the room was always clean and tidied, smelling softly of chamomile and honey.

The pavement is a black parquet, the black sea interrupted by a big fluffy white round carpet in the centre of the room. Her bed is in the opposite corner of mine; it's for one person, just like mine, but hers is a bit simpler than mine, with just a sheet and a pillow, just the essential practically. The walls are a pearl white and the ceiling is black, just like the parquet.

There are a few posters and paintings hanging in some points of the wall, and a big knitted painting, depicting a beautiful mermaid swimming in the night sea, illuminated by the light of the moon.

A white peluche bear was sitting comfortably in a corner of the room, smiling a bit creepily at me; near the big bear there was a very big library full of all sorts of books.

_I may as well steal some to read them, hehe._

On the opposite wall there was a on-wall closet, that was also very big, and on one side there was a black guitar hanging from a pedestal.

On the left of the closet there was a door, that I assume took to the bathroom, and then in front of Kayo's bed there was the principal door to go outside.

I sat on my new bed, taking a deep breath and my pj's for the night, courtesy of Kayo, composed by a black top without sleeves and some shorts, black like the top, the dark clothing screaming 'Kayo' from every side you look at it.

I made another heavy breath before getting up from the bed, directing towards the bathroom.

The bathroom was like her room, The only thing that was different was that the sanitary ware was all black (and beautiful), the painted walls of a wonderful blue, blue as the sea.

I undressed myself, getting into the shower and taking a very long time to wash myself. While I was massaging the scalp of my hair with the shampoo I thought about my home and my mom, both destroyed and empty because of me. I also thought about my grandparents in Italy, and how I grew there, with the love and the affect of them.

And then, the most painful memory I have: my dad.

He died when I was very little, most precisely 7. At that time i didn't know what was the death, but I knew in the worst of ways.

I still remember the night of his death: I was in the hospital with my mom, and my dad was in bed for leukemia; we talked about many things together, then suddenly my dad asked me to tell him a bedtime story and give him a kiss.

And I did so: I told him about a princess and a prince that were in love and helped each other in the hard moments,rubbing his hair like he always did with me, and then on the cheek, mom's way to give kisses to me, then I told him " _you're my prince Papa, I love you._ "

He smiled, said _"I love you too, my dear princess."_ and then he died while I was hugging him.

I thought he was just sleeping at that time, so I gave him a goodnight kiss again and covered him to stay warm.

Mom came near me, kissed dad on the cheek and then me before getting out of the room. I slept at dad's side for that night, then mom took me home to wash myself and go to school; I was just in my 1st year of elementary school at the time.

If I think about that night I'm actually grateful with mon for letting me stay at dad's side for the last night and not taking me home immediately; she knew that that moment was very important to me, even if I didn't realize it at that time.

I finished washing the dirtiness and the tears away, getting out of the shower and drying my body properly, then I put on my pj's. If i have to be honest the only thing I miss apart from my mom and my past live before getting here were my creams, perfumes and makeup.

I looked around myself curiously; _if I steal some of Kayo's perfume she won't actually mind, right?_

I actually did some researches, and a couple of drawers and lockers later I finally found a bottle of perfume belonging to her. I opened it to smell it, and I immediately closed it back; it smells too much of jasmine, and I hate its smell, it makes my head spin!

I put the perfume bottle back in its place with disgust and then continue to look around me; eventually I found a bottle with a rose cream. I hope she doesn’t mind if I borrow some of her cream..

I smeared some of her lotion on my body, mostly on my arms and legs, and then I took care of my hair and headed to my new bed after turning off the bathroom lights.

I snuck into my bed comfortably, enriched with small and large pillows and lots of blankets, since Kayo didn’t know how more comfortable I was to sleep, and I stretched out yawning.

I looked at the black ceiling for a moment, made even darker by the darkness in the room, and then closed my eyes after a while and quickly slid into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one!


	6. I'm thirsty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took way longer than what I had expected. The notes on my phone got completely deleted, and I had to start writing once again. I dunno when the next chapter will be out...stay tuned for more updates!
> 
> (Swap should have a faster update time, since I still have all the notes with me.)

I awakened during the night, and while I was sitting on the bed I felt my throat dry.

I looked at Kayo's bed and it was empty; maybe she wasn't still inside. I got down from my bed, searching for a bottle of water, and failed to find it. I looked at the digital clock on the cupboard: 1 AM. _Nobody would be awake at this time, right?_

I took my crutches, and with careful attention I opened the door to go outside. The first thing I heard, though, was a piano playing in the distance. _So at this time there IS someone awake!_

I debated mentally with myself on whether I should go or not, but the dryness of my throat left me no choice than to go down. I was still into Kayo's room, so I left my crutches there to avoid making noises and wake up whoever was still asleep- if there was still someone sleeping; then carefully I got out of the room after putting on my slippers and slowly but carefully I made my way downstairs.

The more I descended the more the piano was getting loud. _What a beautiful melody..I didn't know someone could play the piano in this house! I wonder who it is...the first person that comes into my mind is Virgil, but I don't really know why..maybe it's because I see him as a delicate person...welp, I guess i'll discover out in a second!_

Once I arrived safely downstairs I started walking towards the kitchen, that was the only place in the villa that I knew where it was. My leg was aching like crazy, and that caused me to stumble on my feet while walking towards the kitchen, falling on a pillow that fell from the sofa and making an unnatural noise. The piano dude stumbled a note, stopped playing, and then got up and directed towards the sofa.

"Who is it? Alice?" the voice was so muffled that I couldn't identify it. I tilted up my head, my face contorted in a frown, and I was no one else than Virgil, his arms crossed on his chest, looking at me with his head tilted on one side, the expression on his face surprised but stern at the same time.

I stayed silent; I don't know why, but I don't want to talk him.

"Why are you here?" he asked me, but now I could see something different in his eyes, I don't know what, and his voice, for some reason was a bit hoarse. I looked down at myself, the direction he was looking at, and I understood why; my pj's was too revealing.. I immediately covered myself with the pillow I fell on.

"I wanted some water; I'm thirsty." I simply answered.

"Why are you without your crutches?"

"They were blocking my movements, and I didn't want to make any noise."

"But you still made noise." his voice now was lower and more severe, as if he was scolding me. He's starting to get on my nerves with his little responses.

I got up from the floor and got towards the kitchen, Virgil following me like a puppy, or to better say like a bulldog that is ready to jump all over you if you do a false move. I took a glass from the top shelf, filling it with the water that was in the purifier; as the water ran out, I filled the purifier again to make drinking water again.

Virgil stayed near me but didn't say a word, making me lose the little patience I had left. I put the empty glass in the sink forcefully, provoking a loud 'thud', then i got back to the living room, walking to the stairs to go upstairs. I just took the first step when I sensed that he had taken my shoulder, making me stop.

What did he want now? Scold me a little bit more? I stopped, without turning around. His grip became lighter all of a sudden, but I could still feel his big hand on my shoulder.

"Hum...I just wanted to say that I’m sorry… for everything. For when I left after dinner, and even for my brother...he is a little wary, you know…"

I just nodded my head, knowing he would see me. And he kept talking.

"About my scene before...you remind me so much of a person who is no longer among us...both by character and appearance...you have her eyes…"

At that moment I turned around, and I was a little surprised when his face was so close to mine.. It was a little red in the face, and you could tell he was embarrassed.

"It’s okay. Now I just want to get some sleep...it’s late." I said, looking down.

I immediately noticed that he had not yet let go of my shoulder, and that now he held it firmly, as if I could disappear from before him. "Sure, I get it, but remember..."

he whispered the last part so slowly that I had a hard time hearing it. _Remember what?_

"I see that I'm not the only one awake here." a female voice resonated in the house, and when I turned behind me I saw no one else than Kayo. She actually had her hair, rigorously wet, down, and a towel gently placed on her neck and shoulders prevented the water from wetting the parquet. She smelled of salt and fresh hair.

"So you were gone for a bath? I thought you were training.." Virgil said, distracting me from my various thoughts. He finally released the grip on my shoulder; now I can dash away to Kayo's room. _Why am I not doing it then?_

"Yeah well, I was meditating on the beach-" _there's a beach? I wanna gooooo!_ "-and then i decided to go for a bath. How come you're here? I thought you were sleeping when I got out from the room an hour ago, is something wrong?" with the last 3 sentences she turned to look at me.

I immediately got back to reality after daydreaming of the beach. "I-um...I just wanted a bit of water...I didn't find any in your room, so I came down here." I said quietly.

"More like you fell down here." Virgil added with an happy expression. I looked at him dumbfounded. I'm not able to understand this man..a few minutes ago he was all serious and imponent, and now he's happy and makes dumb jokes about how I fell on my feet. Ugh.

"Well...she has a broken leg, so I can relate." Oh, thank you so much Kayo! They should make you saint! "I totally forgot to put a bottle fo water in my room, thanks for reminding me, Alice."

"No problem, sain-I mean, Kayo!" I almost called her saint, oh my God. She looked curiosly at me, and I just shrug my shoulders.

"What about we get to sleep? Virg, you planning on staying all night here?" Kayo said quietly, in which Virgil nodded. "Alright then, we'll go to bed. Do you want me to help you up the stairs, Alice? Does your leg hurt?"

"A bit...thanks for helping me." I said. she immediately nodded and took my arm and we got together upstairs. Once we were both into her room she dashed towards the bathroom, determined to make a shower, while I got directly into my little bed, faaling asleep fastly once again.


	7. Mom, Dad?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the very long delay! I'm currently estabilishing a publication date, to be more precise. Should post that on my Tumblr (@Bonsaiiiiiii)

I woke up, feeling more sleepy than when I got to sleep. I yawned, looking outside the window; it was a very rainy day. _Oh_ _well, I guess I won't go to the sea today..then what should I do?_

  
While I was thinking about it I got to the bathroom, washing myself up. When I was done I got back into Kayo's room, noticing just then that it was empty. I furrowed my eyebrows, going to search inside her closet for some decent clothes; well, I still had the dress I came here with, but in some parts it was ripped and all full of ash and dust, even if Nonna Tracy had washed it 4 times. I fished out from the closet a pair of black Adidas shorts and a simple tank top; my shoes were still acceptable, so I wore them too.

Now that I was thinking about it, the first thing to do today was to ask Kayo to go shopping with me. I had to buy so many things, apart from my clothes...  
I got back to the bathroom, tying my hair into a loose bun and putting on some more of Kayo's rose perfume, coughing a little when I accidentally put it in my mouth. _T_ _his bitch is ready to go!_ I thought as I stretched, but that made my leg hurt terribly. _O_ _w...this bitch is ready to go, but with her crutches._ And then...I don't want Virgil to be mad at me-well, more than he already is, God knows why.

I got downstairs slowly, making deep breaths from time to time.

"Good morning everyone!" I said smiling once I arrived in the kitchen. I don't want to be sad today, I want to be in the best mood possible. And then I need to bond up with the Tracys; with Kayo I'm already good, or at least I think so, and I can tell that Nonna Tracy already likes me, as much as I like her..she reminds me of my nonna and all the time I spent with her before this stupid incident.

"Good morning, Alice! Did you sleep well tonight?" Nonna Tracy immediately said, looking at me with some bagels in a plate. Everyone was sitting at the table and smiling at me, apart from Scott that was avoiding me since the moment I came here and Virgil that was looking at his plate embarassed.

"Yeah.." I said sheepishly.

"I see you got yourself at home, wearing my clothes!" said Kayo laughing.

I laughed back ar her. "I always do! If it's a problem.."

"Oh, no, I don't really care!"

I smiled happily at her, making some cappuccino and sitting at the counter near Kayo, drinking it slowly. I also took a bagel, munching it a few times.

"S-so, Alice..do y-you want to d-discover how exactly d-did you got h-here? In t-this timeline, I mean?" Brains said turning to me curious.

"Oh, hell yeah! So I can see if I also get back. No offense, guys, but this is not my timeline, so I better get back to mine to avoid making trouble here." I said.

"You better find a way." Scott said dryly. Him and me still don't get along well, as you can see.

"You're the sweetest, Scott." I replied harshily to him, while Nonna was giving him 'the look', alas the look you give someone else to scold him/her.

"Tch." he simply said, stopping our little quarreling.

I turned back to Brains. "So, as we were saying..?"

"W-well...I made a m-machine that is v-very similar to a x-ray...I s-suppose that the b-best way to d-discover the m-most hidden things is through t-the brain. Or at least I-I think so..."

"Mhm..well, as long as it won't hurt, I'm in. When will we begin?"

"Oh, i-if you want to, also r-right now."

I ate what was left of the bagel, thinking about it. There wasn't anything stopping me from discovering what happened to me, but for some reason I was a bit afraid. In the end I finally made my decision, and I didn't notice that everyone was gone dead silent, waiting for my answer. "Kay. Let's go then."

Brains immediately got up, as well as Virgil, and I looked at both of them confused, getting up too. We then headed towards Brains' laboratory, that was further down that where we was before. And considering that I thought it was just a villa...down there, apart from his laboratory, there were some gigantic ships; I recognized immediately Thunderbird 2, but there were other four to the collection. The ships were more or less similar, only the color of the ship and its number changed. There was a kind of rocket, Thunderbird 1, that was blue; then Thunderbird 2, that was more distant that the others; a yellow submarine, Thunderbird 4, that was floating in water; a red rocket, Thunderbird 3, and at least a black ship, tiny yet beautiful; this one was named Thunderbird Shadow.

Virgil noticed that I was looking at the ships and approahed me, as well as Brains. "Each one of us owns a different ship; they're also different between them, and they're used for different situations." Virgil said casually while looking at his green ship. "Do you want me to tell you who pilots what? But you have to keep the secret."

"Nah, I want to discover them by myself. And also, I don't have anyone to even tell my name to!"

"That's true. Go along then, guess away. You already know what mine is."

"But don't stop me. Okay, so...I think Kayo's ship is the black one...and...Scott's the red rocket. The yellow submarine can be...Gordon's, and Thunderbird 1 must belong to Alan. Did I guess correctly?" I asked, turning towards Virgil that was smiling. He then shook his head. "Oh."

"Y-you misplaced T-thunderbird 1 and 3's p-pilots, but the other two w-were correct. Good job." Brains said smiling, lifting up his glasses.

"I also want to know what each ship does!" I said looking curiously at them.

Virgil shook his head. "Maybe another time. Now we have something else to do." he then started walking again, with me following him.

"Can I ask you why are you here? I mean, down here with us?" I asked quietly, looking at him with my eyebrows furrowed.

He turned to look at me. "Does it bother you?"

"If it would bother me, I wouldn't be asking. I was just curious."

"That makes sense. I'm just here to assure myself that you won't be suffering any damages during the test."

Once he stopped talking, I turned towards Brains preoccupied. "Does it mean that i'll be suffering any damage???"

"No, Alice, d-dont worry. It's j-just that I want to be c-cautious."

"You never know what could go wrong." Virgil finished the sentence, giving me a simpathetic smile. I suppose they're right...in the world of medicine everything could be fatal, and I know that very well, since it was the topic I was about to graduate in.

I sighed. "You're right. Okay then, let's do this!" I said, sitting on the operation table. Brains made me lay down, while Virgil was fiddling with something behind Brains, that had some cables in his hands, putting them all over my forehead, neck and chest. Virgil turned then with an IV in his hand. I frowned quietly, and he noticed that.

"What's the problem?"

"I won't tell you, you'll laugh." I said frowning.

"Come on."

"Okay. I'm afraid of needles." I said after a minute.

He giggled. "A grown woman like you is afraid of needles?"

"Everyone has a hidden fear. You shouldn't be laughing like that, mine is just a fear everyone else can have."

He thought for a moment, raising his eyes to the ceiling. "Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry."

"No problem. Now put that needle before I run away screaming."

He laughed again, and this time I laughed too with him. I then turned my head to the opposite side of the needle that had just appeared into my vision range, and I stayed with my head turned until he was done injecting me. The needle stayed inside the internal part of my elbow, and he attached the plastic tube to the flebo.

"See? It was not a big deal!"

"I didn't say I was afraid of being injected. I said I was afraid of needles." I said, looking at my elbow.

"Touchè."

"P-please close your eyes, A-alice. I need to see y-your brain conditions while you're a-awake." Brains said distractly, while looking into a little screen.

"What do you mean 'awake'? What happens nex-" I started to complain sitting up, but I was interrupted by Virgil pushing me back down gently with a hand on my forehead.

I stayed with my eyes closed and a pouting face during the tests, and once they were over they told me that I could sit up again.

"So what do you mean now by awake?" I asked curious, to then complain loudly again when I saw another syringe in Virgil's hand, looking away.

"It means that we'll get you anestethized, to see your brain conditions when you're sleeping." Virgil said, looking at me with his syringe behind his back.

I widened my eyes, starting to panic. "Is there another way? I'm afraid of that too...and it's based on a personal experience I don't want to revive again."

"What is it?"

"Well...when I was little, like 3 or 4 years old, I had to be operated for a heart condition. I had to be fully anestethized for this operation, and when I woke up again I was feeling bad and the first days I couldn't move at all. Originally I thought that it was the anesthetic, and even if now I know it wasn't that i'm still afraid because I stuck with that mentality."

"I'm sorry, but I have to say it: you're a total mess!"

"I know...there are many fears I need to overcome, sadly."

"Then let's do this fastly! I'll be here if something goes wrong, and Brains can stop the tests now if you feel this bad." Virgil said, turning hid head to Brains, that nodded, looking softly at me.

"Let's do it then!" I said, gathering courage inside myself.

"Good." he made me lay down again and anestethized me. I started to feel sleepy almost instantly, and the last thing I saw before drifting to sleep was Virgil smiling at me; he doesn't seem mad at me. Good...

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I opened my eyes after a long time. How long did I sleep? It seems like it had passed an eternity...

Then I sat up, looking at myself. Now I was in a white long dress, and that is strange, considering that I was in Kayo's clothes. I looked around me, and I could clearly understand that I wasn't in the med-bay again, with all of that fancy medical equipment and the Thunderbirds in the distance; everything was pitch white, and nothing could be seen. Even the sensation was particular; it seemed like I was walking on a cloud. Where the hell am I!?

I slightly narrowed my eyes when I saw the shadows of two people in the distance. _Maybe they're Brains and Virgil...I hope so._

I started to walk towards them, but the more I got near them the more they didn't look like Virgil and Brains. The build of one of them was muscular, but the other person was very slim. Yes, Brains is quite skinny, but from what I can see from the shadow this person had...curves. So she would be a woman...maybe it's Kayo, or even Nonna Tracy? The white light around me was hindering their faces and blocking my sight, so I covered my eyes with my hands. Gradually the white light lowered in intensity, and I was finally able to see the faces of the man and woman in front of me. My jaw dropped down into the infinite abiss of the cloud beneath me when I saw who was in front of me.

In front of me, smiling happily at me, were my parents. I was about to laugh. _This thing is insane! There's no such thing for me to see my parents! What the hell._

I tried to speak out something. "Mom? Dad? Is that you?" I widened my eyes when the voice that came out was way more childish than my usual voice. I looked at me for the very first time, and I realized that I was a child, the same child I was when dad was still alive!

"Princess..." dad spoke while I was looking at myself, and that made me tear up instantly. I missed so much his voice in all those years that I didn't even remember how it sounded anymore! Listening to his voice again was kind of terapeutic for me, and all the grief inside of me for his death slowly dissipated.

I hugged mom and dad for a long time while crying. "Papa! Mom! I missed you so much!" then an urgent question burned inside my mind. "But how can you communicate with me exactly? Is that all some impulse of my brain or something?"

"Kind of. If we were just the product of your imagination, you couldn't touch us." mom said, the smile on her face slowly fading away. I realized immediately what she had said, and I looked at her in shock.

"Does that mean that I...?"

"Yes. You...died." dad said, his voice filled with worry.

"But how?! How did I die?"

"This I don't know, but I believe you should return back to your friends, sweetie." mom said.

"They're not my friends, more like...forced acquaintances. And I don't want to get back...I have you there! Back in the living world I don't have anyone I can trust or rely on."

"But it's not right for you to die! It's not the right time yet..you still have so much to live!" dad said. "But we still have to tell you something, before you go."

"What is it?" I asked quietly.

"On the timeline you're in now...we sent you there."

"WHAT!? This has to be some sort of sick joke, because I don't believe it."

"It isn't. Let me explain. We made some researches, and we discovered that travelling in time is possible actually. So we made a time machine, and we were able to transport little objects from different timelines. My death was a collateral effect of the time travelling, as I made there projects on mys-"

"WHAT!?" I screamed again. "You did WHAT? You were doing these tests on YOURSELF?!" Without realizing it, I was crying uncontrollably. Dad hugged me, silent. I continued. "So you died because of some stupid project? Why???"

"We didn't want for you do discover this, but...you're in danger, Alice." dad said, and I widened my eyes, principally for 2 reasons: the first was that during the time he was alive he never once called me with my name, unless it was to scold me or to tell me something serious. And I think that saying that I'm in danger would be a pretty serious topic.

"In danger for what, exactly?"

Mom spoke this time. "When your dad died I volunteered to take on with this project, because I didn't want all of the data to be lost, but now I died too and these informations are able to everyone. I haven't died for the grief or every other reason they told you, but they killed me."

"Who was it?"

"An organization. Sadly I don't remember the name, but it was just starting back in 2020. Now they must have grown very big. They killed me because they somewhat knew about the time travelling, and now they're searching for you too, Alice."

"But why? I don't understand.."

"Because they think that, since you're the only one left in the family, you have all the data we hid. Listen...we'll tell you where the files are hidden, and you have to search for them and keep them in security."

"I won't! Why should I take them if all that data was the reason that killed you? I'm not afraid that I might die too or anything else, but...I lost both of you because of that!"

They both looked at me silent, then dad knelt in front of me, looking seriously into my eyes. "Because...if who wants these files takes them, all the events of the past, present or future could be permanently damaged. If we tell you where all the files are hidden, do you promise that you'll at least think about this?"

I nodded, staying silent. All of a sudden I could hear voices all around me; they were muffled, but they were calling my name.

"I think I need to go now...I'm disappearing, and that could only mean that I'm getting back to life?"

"Another thing!" mom almost shouted. I looked at her with my eyes widened; I never heard my mom shout before.

"Um...what is it?"

"Another person sacrificed for this project, but she did it gladly."

"She?"

"You don't know her, but you may have heard of her. Does the name 'Lucille' ring a bell to you?"

I thought about it for a second, then I widened my eyes, unsure. "Wasn't it the mom of the people I'm staying with? That woman with the same birthday as me?"

"Yes. She was the mom of the people you're staying with. She died in an avalanche, but it was kind of intentional. It was a caused avalanche. I was there at the moment of the incident, but I couldn't save her. For more informations you have to ask who was there at the moment of the incident."

I listened quietly, then I suddently remember what Virgil said to me last night. _I was there when she..._

"Okay."

"Now we'll tell you what you need to know, but we have to do it fast. You don't have much time left."

I looked down at myself, and I didn't literally have legs anymore.

"Now listen well to us." dad spoke again. I looked into his eyes.

"The files are into a security room in our home, just behind the library. If is everything how we left it, the files should still be there. The security code are the four numbers I tell you to sleep every night, and to open the library you have to see the stars."

I thought for a second. A code? He haven't told me everyhting clearly.

"You don't have to go alone, but you have to choose someone you can truly rely on. Now go! You have to remember this, and that we love you!"

I nodded smiling, hugging them for the last time before closing my eyes again.


	8. Virgil

I opened my eyes almost immediately, feeling Virgil’s mouth over mine again. _I swear this man spends his free time kissing me! Of course it’s not true, but I could think about it..._ Unfortunately, it didn’t last long because he must have felt that I started breathing again, so his lips detached from mine, and he looked at me with the most worried face I could have ever seen.

"Alice! Are you ok?! Do you remember where you are? Do you remember who you are? Do you know who I am?" he asked me in a sequence of machine-gun questions.

I slowly massaged my head, groaning lightly on the contact of my cold hands on my hot forehead, wondering if everything just happened until a few minutes ago was just a dream or some kind of hallucination created by my brain. "Yeah, I’d say I’m fine. Why do you ask?"

He looked at me shocked as if I had just told him to go for coffee. I massaged my arm confused. "Forgive my language, but what the fuck does it mean 'Why do you ask?'??? Your heart stopped beating two minutes ago! It was a miracle to have brought you back to life and you ask me 'why'?"

I decided to ignore his little hysteria, for the time being, considering he was still talking to me. So it was true in the end, I just died until a few minutes ago! So that’s how it feels to be dead... I thought it was more like an 'I’m a ghost and I go around the houses' type of thing. It only lasted 2 minutes. Damn...I thought it was an hour or, to exaggerate, two!

"Alice!" both Brains and Virgil’s voice brought me back to reality, distracting me from my thoughts. I quickly looked around with a shy smile before looking at both of them.

"Uhm...sorry... I think I got distracted.. what were you saying?"

Virgil looked at me with an incredulous face, raising his eyebrows. "But are you really sure you’re okay? Did you know that you can get serious brain damage even with 10 seconds without a heartbeat?"

"I’m fine.. only my head hurts a little." I said, raising my arms to touch my temples with my fingers, but I trapped myself in a wire; I looked down, only then noticing all the wires still attached to my chest and head. Besides, I wasn’t in Kayo’s clothes anymore, I was in some kind of white hospital suit.

I pointed at it with a finger, ready to discuss it with Virgil, but he was faster than me and spoke first. " Grandma. You were in a coma for two days, and while you were here, I had to go to some rescue with my brothers... Brains and Grandma stayed here to make sure you were okay."

I remained silent, hearing that he still had something 'to say. "But then you went into cardiac arrest, and I had to fly back here from a rescue because they, strangely, couldn’t revive you."

I immediately stiffened, thinking of all those people in need of help that he must have had to leave because of me. I looked at him better from head to toes, noticing that he still had his uniform on. He also had his arms and legs covered with mud. Who knows where he’d been until now...

"Oh...and the people you were supposed to help...they’re okay..?"

He smiled at me calmly. "Don’t worry, they’re fine. They were just a couple of archaeologists on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Considering their nature as explorers, they went to visit a sea cave around Kilauea, but were trapped by an earthquake caused by a volcanic eruption. Luckily they had proper equipment and knew how to behave well in dangerous situations.. it was easier for me and Gordon to save them."

At that moment a question flashed in my mind. "And do you two take care of the same field in terms of rescues, or do you each take care of something different?"

"You’ve asked me that before. I’ll explain it to you if you want, but I absolutely have to take a shower.. and then you have to rest." He told me, turning to go out the door.

"All right." I said, sitting up, but as I did, he turned around, making me lie down again, laying the palm of my hand on my forehead. It’s the second time he’s done it.. and I don’t like to stand still and do nothing. I also had the mysterious enigma of Dad to write down before I forget it. " What? I’m going to rest in the room."

He laughed slowly. "Absolutely not. You have to stay here for 10 minutes, just long enough for me to take a nice shower. Then we’ll do some tests and X-rays to see if your body or brain has suffered any damage, only after that you’ll be free to go." His tone was now authoritarian, even though his eyes looked at me gently. He still had his palm resting on my forehead, and only that palm gave me absolute warmth, even though the glove of his uniform.

Although I may have been blushing because of the warmth of his hand, I was nervous about his answer, but I still tried to keep a quiet face and not say anything.

"All right." I simply said, slightly closing my eyes. Of course, I didn’t have the slightest desire to sit here.

"That’s how I like you." I swear, if it wasn’t for trying to keep a straight face, I’d be laughing nervously. "Grandma’s making dinner, and I’ll get you something to eat right here after the shower."

I nod with my head. "I too am going up for the moment. Are you sure you can be alone for 10 minutes?" Brains added looking at me without the blue glasses; he looked tired.

I smiled. It was just the occasion I was looking for to get out of here! "Of course I’ll be fine! Go eat and rest..excuse me for keeping you by my side for so long."

They both muttered "it’s our job," and then came out of the infirmary, both heading up; I could hear them both talking to each other. I sat up again, looking around: this was my only chance to get out of here unless the two of them put armed guards outside the medical bay. I rolled my eyes at the thought, and then I got rid of all the wires that kept me connected to the various machines; fortunately, none of them emitted any acute or repetitive sound, that could draw the attention of the two men that had just got upstairs.

I was almost done, but all that was missing was the cannula attached to the inside of my elbow. I stood still for a moment; I knew how to insert and remove a cannula, my 5 out of 7 years at the medical university had taught me. It just blocked the fact that the cannula was still something inserted with a needle. I was going to lie down again and wait for Virgil's arrival, but now I had rid of all the other wires and I no longer knew where to put them; moreover, Virgil could come back at any moment, my time was running out.

I quickly got rid of the bandages that held the cannula steady. Taking a deep breath I closed my eyes, turning my head from the opposite side of my arm, and with a fast but decisive movement, I pulled the small plastic tube out of my arm. I dropped the last one on the ground, taking a gauze and wrapping it around my arm; the blood was not much but I wanted to try to stop it anyway. I quickly stood up, but I saw everything black for a second, and my head was spinning. Once I got back stable I walked towards the door from which Virgil and Brains had come out before, stopping there. I waited a moment before opening it, leaning my head out and looking around to see if there was anyone out there.

Relieved to see that there was no one nearby I took a deep breath, taking the road that stood in front of me; I could immediately see Thunderbird 2 and Thunderbird 1. Trying to make local mind I took the road that I most remembered, entering the corridor leading to the various rooms. Now all I had to do was look for Kayo’s...that was there somewhere.

After walking a little I approached a door. All the doors in all the rooms were practically identical, except for Alan's and Gordon's, who had some stickers or writing on them. Imagining that the room in front of me was Kayo’s, I slowly opened the door, immediately finding a single bed. Confused, I entered the room, which was green. Kayo’s wasn’t green...I tried to look around, but it was dark and I couldn’t see properly. But what I saw was never in Kayo’s room. If I tended my ears better, I could distinctly hear the sound of a shower in the other room. My breath suddenly became fatigued: that was Virgil’s room! I have just entered the lion’s den! I was immobilized, but I didn’t know why. I wasn’t afraid of Virgil, mostly of being discovered. All I could do was look at the en-suite bathroom with a terrified look on my face, afraid he might come out at any moment.

My mouth was dry, and my breath was sped up. It was only when I heard the water tap shut off that all my senses came back to life again. Running like a fawn who had just learned to walk, I left the room, without even bothering to close the door behind me. But I felt the bathroom door open distinctly, and Virgil walking towards the door, surely confused to have found it open. To avoid being discovered again, I entered the first room I came across, trying to close the door behind me as gently as possible. With my breath strained by running and fear I leaned my ear against the door to try to feel something, but luckily I felt nothing. Once my breath had calmed down, I turned around, resting my back against the door and looking around, worried that this was Brains’ room, with all the luck I had today.

But this wasn’t Brains' room.. In fact, it wasn’t a room at all. It was dark, but from the current that circulated I felt that there was not even a window. The room didn’t even have a piece of furniture, as far as I could see from the moonlight, and it smelled terribly like disinfectant and paint. What was this room..? Was it a kind of closet where to lay the various junk? And if so, where was the junk that should have been in this room? I began to walk slowly to try to understand something more about this mysterious room, but I stumbled upon a kind of stick, falling almost to the ground. I recovered the right balance just before I fell with my face in the painting, and once I was sure that I was standing correctly I took from the ground that sort of stick.

Looking at it carefully, I could only see that it was not a stick. It was a bit too small and short to be a stick, but it was too dark to understand exactly what it was. I held it anyway to avoid tripping over it again, and I found a damp and paperless corner on the ground, sitting there. For the first time in a long time I took another deep breath, and the first thing that crossed my mind was not dad’s code, but my parents. They both died because of this machine that I must absolutely seek to avoid international and unsolvable disasters, and even a member of this family has sacrificed for this project.

And how do I tell this family here? This family that loved their mother so much, from what I could understand? Scott will surely find it as an excuse to throw me off the island and send me under a bridge. As if it were my fault...but from what I’ve seen, Scott is the lead figure in this mansion, so if he wants to kick me out, everyone will support him. Virgil was pretty attached to his mother from what I could tell...For the other brothers I could not find out much, but I think they too are really attached to their mother. What will I do now?

I stood up, considering swimming off the island. I made a small grimace, and then I came back sad again, thinking about when dad gave me his first swimming lessons. It’s true that when your parents are gone, everything you see and think about reminds you of them...a lonely tear crossed my face, and I was so immersed in my memories that I did not notice the opening of the door near me and a person entering inside.

It was only when I felt touched on a shoulder that all my senses came back to life. Instinctively, unable to figure out who he was, I slammed the stick in the face of the mysterious person.

"Come on! I just finished taking a shower!" the mysterious said, and I immediately recognized the voice. It was Virgil's.. he discovered me!

I looked at him carefully. Now he wasn’t wearing his usual lumberjack shirt, but he was wearing a simple black sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. And his face was...All covered in white paint. I looked at the brush I had in my hand, throwing it on the floor, while he did some light in the room with a flashlight. I covered my eyes because of the sudden light.

"10 minutes. I asked you to stay in the medical bay for only 10 minutes. I was going to get you out of there and take the tests tomorrow." you could clearly feel that he was angry.

"Uhm. .ehm.. sorry?" I said embarrassed. He sighed.

"Why did you go out?"

"I wanted to be alone...without all those sounds caused by the various machines. I wanted to remain in silence."

"Ah, so that’s who just walked into my room!"

"Sorry again...but can I ask you what this room is? It doesn’t have any kind of furniture!"

"It’s yours."

"Ah, okay- wait, what?!"

"I mean, it’ll be yours. Once you’ve finished up and added various furniture."

"But I didn’t think...You didn’t have to.." I stuttered confused. I totally forgot that Kayo’s accommodation was only temporary and that they were planning on making me my own room. I can’t accept, especially now that I know their mother died because of my family’s secret project. "I can’t." I finally said.

"Mhm? Look, if it’s Scott you’re worried about, it was his idea to get you your own room. He did so after considering your situation.. after all besides a house, you no longer have any relatives or friends to go live with." he said he looking at me confused.

I sat down on the ground, thinking carefully. It was true, I had no family or friends to take refuge from, and my home was destroyed. But it was also true that they could simply find me a hotel room to stay in and, in the worst-case scenario, pay for the room until I found a job and a permanent home. There was no need to make me a room here on the villa, unless...

"You’re afraid I’ll reveal your secret to someone.." I whispered with my eyes fixed on the ground. "You want to keep an eye on me to keep the voice of the International Rescue from spreading.."

He also sat on the ground in front of me. "You knew right away. Listen...We don’t have it particularly with you, but after all, you’re a stranger in the villa, and not all of us trust you."

"Don’t tell me you trust me.."

"If I’m being honest, no. Since you came into my room a little while ago!" He replied jokingly to try to lighten the conversation, but I just stood there looking at the floor sadly.

I remained silent for a while, and even his expression became serious again. He was going to speak, but I anticipated it. "Could you step outside, please? I want to be alone."

"I don’t know you that well, but I really don’t think it’s the fact of your room that makes you sad. What happens?" He touched my shoulder again, and I raised my head, my cheeks lined with tears. "Hey.. why are you crying now? I don’t think a room is such a big deal."

"It's that..." I started whispering and then stopped. Was it really wise to tell him that I had seen my parents and about the project, especially now that he had openly told me he doesn't trust me? "... how did you get over being alone in the world?" I finally said to him, looking at him in the eyes.

He looked at me confused. "I'm not alone in the world; I have my brothers and my Grandma."

"But I am." This statement came out almost spontaneously, and it was so true that I was hurt by my own words. I no longer had a family, and if I still had friends in life these would not be able to recognize me, and then it would not be wise to go to them; doubts would rise.

Without realizing it I was crying again; I squeezed myself in the shoulders, convinced that I'd be completely alone in this, but I was surprised, and even much, when Virgil practically picked me up in his arms, embracing me in an affectionate hug. The kind of hug that a loved one gives you at a funeral, or when you just learned the news of the death of a relative. A hug that screams at the top of your lungs 'I’m here', even if no word is said. And in fact, Virgil didn’t talk at all, he just held me like that for a while.I tried to free myself from his embrace, wanting to be alone, but his grip was much stronger than I expected: when I tried to push his arms away I could not move them by an inch. So I surrendered, letting my arms fall to the ground and laying my head on his shoulder. He had more or less the same constitution as papa, and even the perfume was very similar, in fact for a second I really thought to find myself in the arms of papa, and not in Virgil's.

The strange magic that had bewitched me and drawn me to him was shattered when he broke the silence. "I have not yet overcome the disappearance of my parents; that is, the death of Mom and the disappearance of Dad. I just learned to live with it, or better to say, put up with it. Because I believe that to live with it I still need a long time." after saying these words he remained silent for a few minutes. I was going to say something to him when he spoke again. "You know.. You look a lot like her, Alice, both in character and appearance."

My shoulders became stiff. It was true that I wanted to know more about Lucille, but now I was not so sure. It was Mrs. Tracy who sacrificed herself, and from what I understood voluntarily, for this project, and at this moment I would never have wanted to know anything more about her. I was going to detach myself from his embrace, but he held me stronger involuntarily, perhaps because of his mother’s memory. I had no choice but to stay and listen.

"I realized you were very much like her from the first time I saw you. The night I rescued you, when you were in the co-pilot spot on Thunderbird 2, I thought I had my mother next to me. She was not as exuberant as you, but she had the same curiosity and the same way of speaking. Even a little while ago... When you tried to convince me that you were okay, I saw her in your stubbornness. She also had the eyes the same color as you and John's."

While I was hugging him, I could sense that he was starting to shake slightly, and even as he spoke his voice was quite trembling. Without saying anything I returned the hug, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. He swiftly turned off the flashlight, and we both ended up in the dark in what was supposed to be my new room.

Even though I didn’t feel the need to do it, I spoke anyway. "Dad always had a saying for this kind of situation. He always said that people can inflict injuries on you in a million ways; even the disappearance of a person can cause you a large or small wound, depending on how important that person was to you. Wounds, if they are not treated, can become infected and cause you serious damage, and this happens when you try to avoid the fact that the person you care the most about is no longer in this world. The wound must take the air; there will be a big scar, but it will not hurt anymore."

"I understand what you’re trying to say...I just have to accept the fact that Mom’s gone, and you have to do the same for your parents." he whispered after a little silence.

"But we'll still remember them..."

"You’re right. But now let’s get out of here...I have to take a shower again." he said, turning on the flashlight and departing from me.

I stood up, wiping my butt from any particles of paint and dust, and then looked at him. His face was all covered in white paint, and realizing too late what I was doing, I approached him, wiping his nose with my index finger. For the first time since he entered that room, our eyes crossed. The palm of my hand remained on his face for a second longer, before pushing it away, always looking into Virgil’s eyes.

From what I could see in his eyes he did not seem at all angry, indeed, he looked at me almost affectionately, even if he was not smiling; at that moment he was so vulnerable...when I withdrew his hand, it was as if he were sorry because I did. I turned around, mentally slapping myself, probably red in the face.

Virgil coughed behind me, then opened the door for me, but went out first, turning off for the umpteenth time the electric torch. "Next stop...Kayo’s room." I expected him to say the medical bay, but I was really glad he didn’t say so; at least now I could sleep on a comfortable bed, finally.


	9. "I Care A Little About You."

We walked silently to Kayo's room, but even if I was silent my mind was full of all kinds of questions. From question without never an answer for my parents, to questions to myself, to Virgil, to Scott.

I wasn't really that excited to live here with the Tracy's. Sure, I know it was a villa the habitation I'm staying in, but I was never the type of person for the 'I'm rich just because I live in a villa that isn't even mine, bow down to me, peasants' issue. I just wanted to be a surgeon, what did I do wrong to turn at this point, homeless and without any kind of financial support?

But hey, you could say, you have a roof under your head. Sure, but it's not my house's roof, if you get what I mean. You could say that many would love to have my opportunity, that there are many and many people, from children to old men, that would wish to have a roof under my head, food to eat, water to wash myself in, heck, even a pool! You could say to not be picky, because there are that kind of people that would give anything, even if they don't have much, to get even a piece of bread.

I agree with you, but I want to have the possibility to be independent. To have a stable job, to make my own money, to have my own life. Being homeless is terrible, but in my opinion being fully dependent on someone else is even worse. In this case, better live under a bridge but be free than to stay here.

I made a deep breath when I noticed that Kayo's room was in front of me, jolting out of my own thoughts. Virgil stopped too, checking quickly on me to make sure I was fine, probably. I looked at him and smiled weakly, raising lightly my shoulders.

"So we're here." I said shyly.

"It seems so. Before you go, I just wanted to say thank you."

"What? I should be the one saying that! For what?"

"Well...I don't know exactly how did you let me do it, but you were the first person I could be able to speak of...mom. I'm grateful at you for that."

"What can I say? I'm a very good listener!" I joked out to enlighten the mood.

He smiled. "You better get going. You're struggling to even stay up on your feet."

"You caught me." I mumbled.

He smiled once again, to then knock on the door of Kayo's room and walk away with his hands inside the pockets of his jeans. _What?_

I was quietly wondering how he can make everything look so natural when I heard a voice from inside Kayo's room.

"It's open!"

I shrugged, entering quietly. My vision became lighter, almost angelic, when I landed my eyes on my beloved bed; I missed that bad boy so much these days...I could practically feel my bones and muscles still ache from the surgery table down at the med-bay.

"So how's Alice?" Kayo asked, without turning from the side of her bed to see who it even entered.

"Dunno, why don't you ask her?" I joked once again. Heh, I'm so funny.

She instantly turned in hearing my voice, and her sudden action made me jump slightly. She came near me almost flying, the ghost of a smile on her face. Can this girl even smile sometimes?

"Alice! Thank God you're feeling better! They told me your heart stopped."

I smiled, about to answer her, when a sudden question popped inside my mind.

"Yo, not to be rude or anything else, but why are you so concerned about me? I don't know you good enough to let out safely this statement, but I don't believe you're the type of person to immediately severe ties with someone." I said, letting everything out without filters.

She looked at me for a while, and when I was feeling uncomfortable enough she spoke again. "You're right, I'm not usually that type of person; but you...you make me curious. Like you've got something to hide, and that unexpectedly draws my attention closer to you. I wanted to approach you the nice way though. I care a little about you."

"I don't even dare to ask what the hard way is, but I like the fact that you speak without filters." I said sheepishly, to then continue. "Well...I may have something to hide, but it's kinda...deep and personal. And, well, dangerous."

"Does it involve International Rescue?"

"Yes but also no. Not directly, if what I'm talking about doesn't get discovered."

"Now you definitively make me curious. What about we sit down so that you can explain me everything?"

"No, if I sit I'm afraid I might pass out from tiredness and sleep 96 hours. And I also have to write something down."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"Something that came to my mind just now." I babbled looking for pen and paper on her desk. Once I found them, I sat down.

"Pen and paper? And what do you need it for? Do you need to draw?"

I looked at her as if she had just talked to me about aliens. "To wipe my ass! What is that question? I write with them!"

"The communicator has a built-in notepad, if you must write."

"Yes, but I still don’t know how to use the communicator. Do you forget that I’m from 2020? Twenty-twenty? At that time there were no communicators, but we had phones. And then I still don’t have a communicator all my own...but I have this." I explained to her, getting up again and pulling out of the jacket pocket I was wearing at the time of the accident the phone, which I had not touched for a long time.

"Well, then write on that if you have it!"

"I prefer to use the old method, paper and pen. Digital notes disappear in time, while a written thing remains forever!" I said while sitting back, swaying the paper sheet almost triumphant.

She rolled her eyes, shrugging her shoulders. "As you say. At least I can know what you write?"

"Christ, why are you so curious?"

"You’ve made me curious from the moment you entered this mansion, if I have to express my sincere opinion."

"I think you better not express it."

She ogled at me, so I put my hands in front of me as if to defend myself while I sighed. "All right, all right! Sit down and see if you care!"

I returned to focus my attention on the paper in front of me, tapping the pencil on my lips concentrated, trying to remember my parents' riddle. I then looked at the ceiling for a few good minutes; meanwhile Kayo had sat on the floor next to me, refusing to take a chair and sit like a normal average human being. I finally managed to remember the riddle, and I gasped so loud that Kayo got scared.

"What the fuck are you so excited about?" she asked, almost angry. Apparently she doesn’t like to be scared.

"What? I remembered the riddle!" 

"Riddle?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. Wait until I write it..." I went back to look at the sheet of paper, writing immediately, this time, the riddle. _4 numbers to sleep and stars. Well._

"Stars and sleep? What does that have to do with it?" Kayo asked confused from above my shoulder.

"That's what I have to find out."

"Yes, but what’s the situation? You haven’t told me yet!"

"Well, then I’ll tell you right away. But buckle up, 'cause you’re about to get run over by a ton of complicated stuff!" I answered, waving my hands to a semi-arch, as if to simulate a rainbow.

"Cool." she answered sarcastically, and then she went straight back and stared at me. And so I explained everything, from the vision of my parents to the time machine, but excluding the 'sacrifice' of Mrs Tracy, which I did not want to tell anyone. I don’t trust anyone here, and I think I’ve already done a tremendous amount of damage in telling everything I know to Kayo, especially when she explicitly told me not to trust me. Maybe I screwed up.

But Kayo stayed silent and listened to everything I said without even talking, and I honestly liked it. Once I had finished telling the story, I smoothed the green hospital dress I was wearing with my hands, remembering I had to take a loooong shower and burn the dress repeatedly.

She was about to open her mouth and ask a question, so I mentally prepared to answer anything she wanted to ask me.

"An organization, you say? Your parents have told you nothing more about it?" Her question surprised me, and a lot, so I just stood there and looked at her for a few seconds before I came back to normal.

"No. My mother told me not to remember the name, but that they had just started their business in 2020. She told me they weren’t well known."

"Hmm...they probably tried to target the time machine because they considered it an opportunity to become popular. What you gave me isn’t much, but I can try to do some research on the subject."

"Hm. I mean wait, you’d do that for me?"

"Sure, just to get you back! I’m kidding, don’t take it seriously. I think you’re pretty...special, but I don’t really understand why. I’ll look into that too."

Wait, what does she mean? Does she want to watch me all the time? Oh my God, I get anxious just to think about it... "Is it okay if I go to the bathroom for a shower now? I stink and this thing is uncomfortable enough to wear for a long amount of time."

"Please, go ahead. I’ll prepare you some pajamas for tonight."

"Thank you, you’re my salvation!"

"I know." she answered, winking at me maliciously.

"So I’m going. Can we talk later?" I asked her a little embarrassed.

"Again? What did we just do in the last hour?"

"Wow, has it really been an hour? It felt like 5 minutes!" 

"You go wash up, then we see. Walk!"

"Don’t bully me! I’m going!"

I immediately entered the bathroom, gently closing the door behind me, and then walked to the locker where Kayo kept the towels, bending down slightly and taking one beige and one blue to dry my hair and body once finished the shower. Then I stayed in the center of the bathroom for a few minutes, undecided whether to use the bathtub or the shower. I opted for the latter, going to open the hot water, making it flow a little. I turned around and began to undress; I immediately took off that kind of hospital shirt that began to irritate my skin, throwing it to the ground without too many ceremonies.

I was about to enter the shower, when my gaze focused particularly on a detail seen in the mirror. I looked at my reflection, and my hands came to touch the large scar that lay just below the navel, in the lower abdomen. Now it didn’t hurt anymore, but I still remember the story behind it. And that still hurts when I think about it.

Long story short, I was a victim in a free-range shooting. It was more a robbery than a shooting, to tell the truth; I and four other people were injured in the accident, while my mom, who was with me at the time of the accident, and seven others were unharmed. I remember we were in a store and I was the one who suffered the most damage, but those parts also blurred for me. I don’t remember much, but it must be because when I was younger I wanted to block that thing in my mind, trying to forget it.

Now it wasn’t hot or cold, and I didn’t mind seeing the scar, nor was I trying to cover it up. Now I had accepted it as a part of myself, and in a sense I’m proud of it because it’s a sign that I survived the accident.

Not like this time...this time I really wanted to die. I can’t do anything and I’m stuck. It is not the best of the best, but I will try to settle. After all I can not do more... I waved those thoughts out of my curly head and then went into the shower after setting the right temperature for the water.

I washed my body and hair well for quite some time, so much so that I lost track of it. I don’t know what time it was when I got in the shower, but when I left, they were done at 11:00PM. Yawning, I took the towel that was now mine, also taking another one a bit smaller for the hair. I twisted the latter like a burqa in my hair, dabbing a little to squeeze water out of my hair, and wrapped the largest towel around my body. Then I came out of the big bathroom and wiped my forehead with the palm of my hand, and I noticed that Kayo was lying on the bed. I didn’t know if she was asleep, though. On my tiptoes I approached my bed, taking the clothes that she had prepared me and wearing them silently. I went back to the bathroom and put the two towels on the hanger and tied my hair in a ruffled bun.

I finally sat on the bed, and I was going to lie down and fall asleep when I heard a soft whisper.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, Kayo! I didn’t know you were still awake!"

"I dozed off, but then I woke up. So?"

"Rather than talking to you, I just wanted to ask you a question."

"Ask it."

"I know you don’t trust me enough...but..."

"Get right to the point."

"Will you take me home?"

She sat on the bed and stared at me for quite a while. Then she said, "Is it the riddle? Do you want to find out more?"

"Yes, I would love to."

"I’ll take you there. But you have to see what Virgil says. I think you still had some medical tests to finish."

"Oh, I’ll talk to him, and I won’t take a no for an answer!" I answered burying myself under the covers and closing my eyes.


	10. Back Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, I'm back again! but I won't be active, both in here and in Tumblr, because I have my finals this year and I'm actively concentrating on my studies, leaving everything aside. I can't promise you anything, but I'll try to be more active when I have time and maybe also post a new chapter.
> 
> anyways yeah, leaving you all in deep cliffhanger because I'm me. enjoy!

"No" was the firm answer he gave me the next morning, when I finally managed to find him and ask him the fateful question.  
  
I watched him carelessly, my mouth slightly ajar. "No...?"  
  
"That’s what I said! No. You still have to finish the medical exams, and we agreed that we would do them today, since yesterday you...escaped. You have no excuse today, you’ll be alone with me.  
  
Under normal circumstances I would've blushed again, but I was too angry to actually listen to what he had said. "Why not?! I have to go out, I can’t stay here forever!"  
  
"First of all, you can’t go out without one of us to go with you, and then what are you supposed to do outside of here?"  
  
"Uh, buy clothes?  
  
"We’ll get some for you, actually. I’ll ask Scott to stop by and buy some clothes."  
  
"Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather pick something I like...and then I don’t see Scott as the type to buy clothes."  
  
We were complaining for so long that I didn't notice at all Kayo trying to shut us.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
We both turned towards her, even if I wanted to bite his face apart.  
  
"Don't be such a spoilsport, Virgil. What about we'll do those exams, and then I'll accompany her do some shopping?"  
  
He thought for a second. "Well, you are certainly a better choice at shopping than Scott, that's for sure." Then he turned to look at me intently. "Very well then..if that's okay for you."  
  
What? First he shuts down every single one of my ideas and then he asks me if I'm okay with something, especially if it's my wish to go out? I really want to go out, but... "No. Forget it. Let's do these stupid exams and then I'll stay into my room." I said firmly, to then add "No ifs, ands or buts about it." when I noticed that he wanted to speak.  
  
He just sighed. "Very well then. Let's go now."

  
We both sighed almost in unison, and we walked quickly to the medical bay, me walking forward and him following me. These days I'll the opportunity to explore the island from top to bottom, of course avoiding to enter in other people’s rooms as I have done before. I hope to find out where the beach that Kayo mentioned that night I went down drinking is, but until now I never had the chance to go searching. Since I can’t get off this damn island, at least I can explore it, I hope.  
  
So we made those tests, and we finished it was already lunch time. _Who knows who will cook today..._ It was only when I haven't heard any steps that I turned to look behind me. And Virgil was gone. I scratched my head confused, wondering where could he be, when Kayo approached me, almost smiling.  
  
"Are you ready?"  
  
"For what?"  
  
"To go to your home! And shopping, I'm tired of you always borrowing my clothes."  
  
"I thought I told you I didn't want to go!"  
  
"Yeah, but didn't you already make the exams you had to do? and then I think you really need it, don't you?"  
  
"Well..." I paused for a moment, thinking. I really need to go buy new clothes and personal effects for me...and then I have to go check at my house, for the riddle. "Alright then. Let me get dressed then."  
  
"Nah, go like that. It's not such a big deal."  
  
"You don't want me to borrow any more of your clothes, don't ya?"  
  
"Exactly." Kayo pushed me to get going down to the ships. "Now move."  
  
But to my big surprise, instead of going down in the basement through the corridor we got into the big living room. There were some people already; Gordon was sitting on the yellow sofa, chatting with the hologram of a blonde woman that popped out of the round table, and they both didn't seem to notice me; Scott was communicating with someone with a kind of walkie talkie, and when we entered the room he glared at me seriously, almost sternly, before getting back to talking, giving his back to me. Virgil and the other one, which I didn't memorize the name yet, weren't here.  
  
I turned towards Kayo. "Why are we here?"  
  
"To get to my ship." she answered, so naturally that I thought it was usual for her.  
  
I shrugged. "If you say so."  
  
In that moment Gordon noticed me. Was it Gordon though? Or was he Alan? Dang those names, I never seem to remember any. "Alice! Come here!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because." he answered, looking a moment at me before laughing. "I need to present you to a person."  
  
"Okay." Oh gosh, I need to remember another name! There's too many names! I seem to remember only Virgil's and Scott's, because they both were longer with me. And then, yeah, Kayo.  
  
"You must be the new entry I heard about! Nice to meet you and welcome here, I'm Lady Penelope."  
  
'Lady' Penelope? She's a royal or something? Like Lady Diana? Do I need to bow to her? "Um, nice to meet you. I'm Alice." I answered on the end, bowing my head slightly.  
  
She returned the gesture, to then smile warmly at me. Oh, at least she smiles; I suspect that it's painful to smile for Kayo.  
  
"So...are you her girlfriend?" I asked smiling, pointing subtly at the blond besides me with a finger.  
  
"Oh!" the Lady gasped softly, and blondie looked at both me and Penelope back and forth, red in the face.  
  
"No, um, not really." he answered shyly in the end, so unsure that I gave him a menacing look, grinning. He coughed and turned back to look at the Lady.  
  
I shrugged and then turned back, after saying goodbye to the Lady, and the first thing I saw once I turned back was Kayo looking at me and smiling. Oh wow, so she IS capable of smiling. I haven't thought it possible.  
  
But I didn't see just her; Virgil and, surprisingly, Scott too, were looking at me, the first on the verge of laughing while the second looked at me with an eyebrow raised, but a entertained look on his face.  
  
"So...can we go?" I asked, turning to Kayo. She nodded, to then go to sit on a single couch.  
  
I looked at her confused, my mouth slightly ajar and one of my eyebrows furrowed upwards. She smiled again. "So why don't you sit?"  
  
"You're all strange, I swear." I said, sitting down near her with a confused face. But just when I sat down the sofas started to move downwards. I looked at them almost terrified, about to get up and jump from it before it would suck me down into the bowels of earth, but just when I got up Kayo tucked me down by my shirt, making me sit down again.  
  
She looked at me. "You don’t have to be afraid. They won’t break and turn like crazy as they did last time." In seeing the terrified look on my face she quickly added: "It was Alan last time. Gordon pulled a joke at him, tampering with the controls of the chair. He ended up in the basement and could not go back! You had to be there; it was the funniest thing in the world!"  
  
"Hmm...why? When did this happen?" I asked, a little to distract myself from the fact that a chair was practically taking me to who knows where.  
  
"A couple of months ago. Alan fattened up all the fishes in his aquarium, so Gordon got his revenge."  
  
"Does it always work like that in here?"  
  
"Like how?" she asked me, a bit confused.  
  
"Well...like that. You always make jokes to each other, and I think for you it seems so natural to do so!"  
  
She looked at me for a while, and then she shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, that’s how it works between us. That’s how you have fun here."  
  
"I get it.. And I think Scott’s the only one who’s always serious, right?"  
  
She laughed a little. "Nah! He’s showing you this part of himself because he’s a little suspicious of you, but you’ll see that when you'll convince him that you’ve never done anything wrong, he’ll change his mind, and he’ll show you a part of himself that he usually shows to us. You just have to be patient."  
  
And how do I convince him? I asked myself mentally, sighing. "You still haven’t told me where we’re going."  
  
"I’ll tell you as soon as we leave."  
  
"When?"  
  
I quickly looked around me, up and down, touching the chair to see a tampered something, but I was interrupted by Kayo's almost chirping voice. "You’ll find out soon! Try to stay calm, it’s all natural."  
  
"What does that mean?" I didn't have the time to finish the sentence that our chairs separated, hers getting in a tunnel and mine on the other side. I looked around myself, terrified and afraid. "Kayo? KAYO? THIS ISN'T FUNNY AT ALL!"  
  
During the trip I saw some sort of robotic arms on the wall around me, but seeing that they didn’t move at all calmed me a little. Even though I have no idea what’s going on, I’m trying not to worry too much. I mean, if Kayo does this every day, it doesn’t have to be dangerous, right? I turned my head slightly to look behind me, then I looked around again, trying to be quiet. It was only when I saw Kayo come out of the wall next to me casually that I cheered up. Honestly, I’ve never tried this before, taking a whole trip in a chair, but if I hadn’t been so scared, I would have found it...interesting, and also cozy. I smiled slightly at Kayo, who now had some kind of dark blue suit on, and then I focused on where the chair was taking me.  
  
I was very surprised when my chair moved behind Kayo’s chair, and was even more surprised when our chairs entered a motorcycle. I’m serious. The chairs entered a motorcycle. I was starting to feel a bit like a fish out of water, half confused but also half excited. After all, I had never taken part in an event like this. I didn’t even know Kayo had a motorcycle. The inside of the bike was nice (I hadn’t had a chance to see the outside yet.) Kayo turned to smile at me quickly before turning around and starting the engine, which made a cute noise that sounded like it was purring. I quickly remembered to fasten my seatbelt, just as Kayo took off at full speed.  
  
When Kayo accelerated I burst out laughing, cheering joyfully like a little girl. I had always loved speed. Whether it was a ride, a trip in the car with the parents, a ride in the car alone...speaking of cars, I suddenly remembered that I needed to renew my driver’s license.  
  
All my fear vanished during that motorcycle trip, which proved to be quite short. I still had a weird feeling and my gut was telling me to look above me. I was about to, when Kayo suddenly stopped on a platform, which took us upwards...right where my instinct had been telling me to look. From inside the motorcycle we ascended into some kind of ship, also black. I had no clue what was going on. I wanted to tell Kayo, but just laughed nervously instead. I leaned over Kayo’s shoulder to see what she was doing; she was pulling down on some kind of console, perhaps to guide the ship. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, and just at that moment the yellow platform on which we were positioned moved, taking us outside. All I saw around me was the sky and the rocks of Tracy Island...’Well, I got the island tour I wanted’, I thought happily, relaxing back in my seat.  
  
I strained my ears when I heard a countdown, starting from 5 to 1; once finished, the ship departed, settling in the sky and taking a direction.  
  
"Thunderbird Shadow in action." Kayo said, probably to me.  
  
I was going to answer her, when another voice came in. Part of the controls console lit up, and the hologram of a red-haired man appeared as if by magic. _I still have to get used to all these holograms..._  
  
"FAB Kayo, have a safe trip. Let us know when you are about to return." and who is this now? Another Tracy? Another one? When he looked at me I waited, certain that at least he would show up, instead he just stared at me for a few seconds, and embarrassed even, before his hologram was replaced with Virgil's.  
  
His concern though, as soon as his hologram appeared, was to look directly at me. "How’s it going, Alice? Are you okay?"  
  
My cheeks turned pinkish, perhaps because he was worrying about me. "Yes...yes, I’m fine. I’m just a little upset, full of emotions. I didn’t know you had so many ships!"  
  
Evidently something of what I said struck him particularly, because he darkened, albeit slightly, and for a second. "But, we showed- Well, it doesn’t matter. Be careful." and with this last sentence even his hologram disappeared, the ship immediately much quieter than when we left.  
  
"Um...listen, Kayo" I asked her after a couple of minutes of silence, "Don’t you have any music here?"  
  
"No. But we can always talk."  
  
"Fine by me. What do we want to talk about?"  
  
"First give me your address, and then we’ll decide what to talk about."  
  
"Of course." and I explained the same address that I explained to Virgil the day he saved me.  
  
"Well," she whispered, inserting the coordinates into the GPS, which immediately gave a short beep "we are now in autopilot, so until Thunderbird Shadow takes us to your house tell me a little bit about yourself."  
  
"But don’t you already know everything about me? I told you everything I remember about my past!"  
  
"I wouldn’t know...how did you spend your childhood? With whom?"  
  
"Oh, with nana." I said, it came out naturally, but then I became mute, thinking about why I had gone to live there, albeit temporarily. "Well...after my father died I had to move overseas because-"  
  
"Oh, wait, rewind. Did your father pass away?"  
  
"Oh, I thought I already told you. I must have thought so many times that I convinced myself I told you! Sorry, my mistake."  
  
"It happens, every once in a while. But you see that I know almost nothing about you?"  
  
 _It’s because maybe I don’t want you to know anything about me_ , I wanted to tell her, but then I thought maybe she had to look up all my information before she had this speech with me. After all, I see her as the type of person to do so. "Well, maybe..."  
  
"So why did you have to go abroad after.. your father?"  
  
"So my mom could get back on track with her job. And maybe even to make me change some air; so mom sent me to my grandparents-"  
  
"Your mom’s parents?" she interrupted me.  
  
"Yes. So I spent my childhood there, and when I finished high school, I went back to medical school in California, but maybe I already told you that."  
  
"Yeah, I’ve heard that before."  
  
"And here we are. Now you know everything about me, or at least what I can remember."  
  
"I understand. I know this may sound like a very personal question, but...how did your father die?"  
  
And in fact, it was a very personal question. "I don’t want to talk about it right now, I’m sorry."  
  
"Don’t worry, I understand. You didn’t have to answer me." she reassured me.

When some of the controls beeped again she turned around again, with her back to me. Until now she had turned so that she could see me...and I could see her face. Her eyes seem sincere, maybe she really wants to help me. Who knows...  
  
"We’re almost there." Kayo’s voice interrupted my sermon of thoughts.  
  
"Oh, good." But instead of going on, to my surprise she stopped quite far from the city. "Sorry, why did we stop?"  
  
"Oh well, because I want to go unnoticed. I don’t want the locals to lift their noses up to the sky and see us, you know?"  
  
"Eh, okay, but how do we get to my house?"  
  
"You must have some memory issues, dear Alice."  
  
"Eh?" It was only when the ship got up that I remembered the motorcycle that had become part of the ship. I slapped myself mentally a thousand times, but I still kept an almost impeccable smile on the outside.  
  
How stupid I am. So, so stupid. "Ah." I sighed, almost as if I had just cursed. Kayo just watched me amused, and then she put on her helmet. She asked me to do the same, and only when we were both ready the bike started its engines and we left.  
  
Another particular thing happened: when the bike departed the ship rose in flight and, without anyone could pilot it, went to rest almost gracefully on a wall of rocks that was close to us.  
  
"Is it magic?"  
  
"Autopilot." she answered, more and more amused.  
  
"I’m still new to all these things...give me time to get used to it."  
  
"As you say." she replied, perhaps not too convinced.  
  
In a short time we arrived at my house and, unfortunately for me, it was just like the last time I was there with Virgil. Many nights I prayed, and during my sleep even dreamed, that my home would return as before, that I could go back to my corner of the universe and think of nothing...but I couldn’t, I couldn’t be free anymore.  
  
As soon as the bike stopped I was the first to get off and walk towards my house. It was all half-staggered, and the door had remained on the ground, the entrance of the house wide open to the world. I looked around, preventing myself from crying, desperately trying to remember and cling to those few memories I still had. The fruit trees, the big garden full of flowers, disappeared. In their place there was only a lot of tall, uncultivated grass. The ivy, which climbed sinuously to the walls of the house without ever destroying them, had now grown very large; the walls were peeled.  
  
The discomfort assailed me: the first time I came back here after the accident didn’t even seem true to me, I took for a joke that 40 years had passed and that the house had become a stranger to me, I did not even consider it as an option. But now that I know what happened...  
  
I felt a movement behind me, then beside me. "Do you feel like entering?... I understand how devastating it can be for you."  
  
"No...I have get back here anyways. My plan is to get the data I need and solve the time machine case so I can get out of here as soon as possible." I answered her dryly.  
  
She shrugged, but she eventually waited for me to go in first.  
  
And so...I started walking, taking courage at every step I took; the distance between me and the entrance seemed endless, or maybe it was me who was taking an eternity to get there. Kayo followed me patiently, walking slowly behind me, leaving me room to think about what to do next; I would have thanked her for it, but now my mind is too full of thoughts to deal with it. After a few endless seconds I found myself standing in front of the entrance of the house. I had my mind muffled, and the noises of everything around me went into the background. _Who knows what happened to my neighbors..._ I thought. Funny thing to think about, isn’t it?  
  
I sighed deeply, trying to hold a hiccup, and stepped in, officially entering the house.  
  
 _I'm home._


	11. Everything How I Left It

The hallway was the first thing I saw, and that’s exactly how I remembered it. If it was really all exactly like in my memories, the kitchen should have been on the left, while the living room and the rooms should have been on my right. In front of me there was, and even the only thing intact in the house half destroyed, the stone staircase that leads to the basement.   
  
Often, when my college colleagues were meeting at my house to study together, they would make fun of me because they thought that in that basement I was hiding children or corpses. They always told me this because they smelled something strange, and because then the stairs were short and steep, so that only one person at a time could get down there. Actually, the weird smell they all smelled was the kimchi mom used to brew every year for dad’s sake. He liked Kimchi so much, and so, getting help from mom and me, he produced a few pounds that he then put to ferment, so that we could eat it with rice or meat especially during the holidays.   
  
How much I miss Dad...I still see both Mom and Dad walking around the house. Mama would have complained that the house was a mess and had to be cleaned, and Papa would have remembered, looking at the wall of the hallway I’m standing in right now, that this wasn’t enough pea green, so it had to be repainted; He would take out his beloved bucket of pea green paint and a few wide brushes, and he would repaint the wall all over again even if he were in a suit and tie; in fact, I remember once he did it as well...mama was really pissed.   
  
I never really knew why Dad liked this color so much, nor did I ever know, but looking at that wall, now stripped and dirty, always put me at ease.   
  
I forgot about Kayo until I turned around and found her looking at me gently; she probably realized that I was remembering my good times in this room, and she didn’t talk to me to avoid ruining the moment. Oh yes, they should make her a saint indeed. As soon as she saw that I was looking at her with my face wet with tears she approached, wiping the tears unorthodoxly with the palm of her hand, and almost rubbed off my cheek, but I did not say anything anyway, letting her do it.   
  
"Want to go?" she asked me shortly after.   
  
"Yes...yes, let’s go."   
  
"Don’t you want to go around the house?"   
  
"...I don’t feel ready at the moment. Let’s look for what we have to look for and get out of here. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to go back at another time."   
  
"I understand...then, what did the riddle tell you?"   
  
" _The security code are the four numbers I tell you to sleep every night, and to open the library you have to see the stars._ In principle."  
  
"You remember it by heart."   
  
"How could I forget that..." I mumbled, then patted my cheeks slightly, going back to being like before on Tracy Island. "So...if I have to look for 4 numbers to sleep...it seems to me a combination. You?"   
  
"Hmm...I don’t see any safes around here. That’s how we’re gonna do it," she explained to me after a short break, "I’m going to walk around here, and you can look in the bedrooms. We’ll meet back in the living room." Strange. the way she gave me such precise orders, it seemed like she already knew the house.   
  
But I decided not to ask her any questions, and I did as she said, taking, albeit with some reluctance, the hallway door to my right, which of course was wide open like everything else in this house.   
  
What I saw as soon as I entered surprised me very much: on the large dining table, now old, chipped and without a leg, a red fox was seated, but it did not seem to see me. I approached without trying to make noise; I also considered taking off my shoes, but seeing the shards of glass and other materials on the ground I decided to reconsider this idea, continuing to tiptoe.   
  
The fox probably slept, all rolled over what was once a centerpiece, and judging by the size it looked like a female. I decided not to pay any more attention, starting to wander around the living room looking for something; well, I don’t really know what I was looking for. Perhaps it would have been better to search the rooms upstairs? I approached the spiral staircase, undecided whether to climb it or not; the steps were all made of oak wood and, even if they had been treated, with time they managed to become mouldy, so now they should be very, very weak.   
  
Taking this into account, I went up the stairs anyway, which naturally gave way with a big thud as soon as I arrived at the rooms at the top. The fox who was sleeping on the table awoke overwhelmed and ran away, to my surprise with puppies following her. And so I found myself crouching on the top of the staircase, looking down at the fox running away as if I were a cat; immediately after I saw Kayo who, drawn and with a gun in her hand, ran to the center of the living room to see what had happened. Seeing the stairs completely destroyed below me, she looked up, instinctively pointing the gun at me. I, instinctively too, raised my hands in the air, all accompanied by a suffocated squeal. Once Kayo saw that I was making all that noise, she put the gun down and snorted, perhaps out of exasperation or concern.   
  
"You tell me why you have a gun? I thought you were in charge of saving people, not killing them." I asked timidly once I had caught my breath.   
  
"First, this is a taser. We, legally, cannot kill the attackers, but only immobilize them."   
  
"Legally...?" I stuttered red in the face.   
  
"And second, I do covert ops."   
  
"So you save people, but not directly like the others?"   
  
"You got there fast this time." she commented, impressed.   
  
"I’m starting to get the hang of it."   
  
She didn’t answer, rather she put the taser back in her holster, and to my great surprise she chased another one, pointing it at me.   
  
"Wait! I don’t think you need to shoot me! We can talk about it civilly!"   
  
"I’m not aiming for you, dummy. Move to the..." she remained a moment to observe where I was, to then point the gun again to me, "...right. Move to the right."   
  
I did as she told me, and when she was sure that I was out of sight she fired the gun to the left; the grappling hook clung safely to a support near me, while Kayo from below took care to tie the rope attached to it on a pillar of the living room, making sure it was safe to get down there. Then she told me.   
  
"Get down from there. It’s safe."   
  
"I still have to look in the rooms. I’ll come down later."   
  
But she wasn’t of the same mind. "Now I need you down. Inside a drawer there's a bloody knife, and I can’t open it. I mean the drawer. So I need you to do it, because I don’t want to destroy the little that’s left intact."   
  
"That sounds like an excuse to keep me close to you." I flirted suddently, looking at her with sweet eyes.   
  
"I’m not looking for a relationship right now. Get down."   
  
"I know you’re in love with me anyway!" I started humming, but I stopped only when I saw her pull back the electric gun. "My God, there’s no need to be so aggressive! I’m going down now~!"   
  
I approached the rope, which was perfectly taut and firm, and I descended nimbly with an acrobatics, protecting my hands from the rope with the sleeves of my shirt.   
  
"What an agility." was the only comment she ever made.   
  
"You’re talking to a competitive athlete here." I said it casually.   
  
"Oh yeah? And what exactly do you do?"   
  
"If everything is as it was then, just go up to my room." And talking to each other, I finally came to the kitchen, which of course was all destroyed. I immediately found the drawer Kayo told me about, which was hermetically closed. And it was also natural. I asked her for the electric gun, which she reluctantly handed over to me.   
  
"You should know that this cabinet is very old," I informed her, inserting the safety on the gun to avoid accidentally shooting electric beams, "and...if it is not opened in a precise- way," I continued, trying to force the lock, to see if it had given way over the years. No. "It doesn't open!" So I immediately pulled the butt of the gun on the lock, which gave way and opened the drawer. "There."   
  
"If you would have told me that you would have broken the lock, then I could have done the same thing." she replied, almost distracted.   
  
I smiled at her, and regretted what I said as I uttered the words, "well, the house is already destroyed. One thing is worth the other." The words that I said hurt me because I seriously considered at that moment, with that sentence. I understood that there was no way to bring back time. Ironic, isn’t it?   
  
Kayo watched me for a long time, then leaned out to get the knife out of the drawer. It was a strange knife...it was all serrated, like the ones used to cut bread, and it was all encrusted with blood; it also had a few pieces of skin attached to its teeth.   
  
"Um," Kayo said after a moment of silence, spent observing and twisting the knife in her hands, "so logically your mom should have died of a heart attack? Or at any rate natural causes, not related to any kind of weapon?"   
  
"Theoretically yes. But she had told me that she had been killed and she had not died...by herself."   
  
"Well, this wasn’t supposed to be the murder weapon in the first place."   
  
"Why?"   
  
"I have to ask for autopsy reports, but when you use a knife to kill a person you plunge it into the flesh, stabbing the person, you do not use it to slice the skin up. This knife here seems too bloodless to me." her blue gloved fingers gently passed over the non-bloody part of the knife.   
  
"And so what?"   
  
"And so this knife was either at the scene of the crime at the time of the accident, and it was put in the drawer afterwards, or it was actually used to kill your mom and then not properly cleaned up afterwards. I can’t give you an opinion."   
  
"And do you think that if we send it to be serviced we will find something on it? It is a very old knife...much may not be valid anymore."   
  
"At International Rescue we have very powerful technology, but that’s not where I want to send it. Just wait and see."   
  
"Okay. And what do you think about the fact that we found it so easily? Do you think it was put there on purpose?"   
  
"No, but I think it was deliberately ignored. I’m sure law enforcement will have done some research...it’s getting everything more and more complicated." She placed the knife in a plastic bag, one of those used to freeze food, and sealed it with a round of scotch. Her first instinct was to put it in her pocket, but her suit didn’t have any, and she noticed it too. "Look, you don’t have-?"   
  
She didn’t have time to finish the sentence that I opened and I lengthened to her the purse that I had brought from home; of course this is also by Kayo, and it is also quite beautiful: it was all pink and hairy, heart-shaped.   
  
"This one too?" she asked me, while she was resting the bag in the purse with the utmost care.   
  
"I really liked it. How come you keep it hidden in the back of the closet?"   
  
"It was a gift, but I never liked it. I mean, I like it, but I wouldn’t use it to show myself around with it. If you like it.."   
  
"No, I don’t! It's a gift! I can always get one just like it."   
  
She stared at me for a long time. "Whatever."   
  
"Good. If we’re done here, let’s go back upstairs now! We still have the puzzle to decipher, then I can leave this house behind."   
  
"You don’t believe it either," she said, "but let’s go."   
  
So we set off, me in front and her behind me, to the living room that would then take us upstairs. And between a few stunts, some foot stompings, a push and piggyback rides we both found ourselves upstairs, cleaning up dust and wood fragments from our clothes.   
  
"Where are we going now?" she asked me coughing.   
  
"The first place I can think of...is my room. Let’s go." as I finished the sentence I immediately walked towards a door that I knew well, all too well. The one of my room.   
  
When I came before it I remained a little bit to observe the door, as if it were made of fire and I was meditating on how to open it to arrive on the other side; I didn’t really just want to go into the room, that’s all. The wooden door has always remained the same, as I had unconsciously left it the last time I went out and I closed it behind me; even now it has remained closed, as if my mother had never had the courage to open it until now.   
  
I gently laid my hand on the round doorknob, which I had always hated because of its shape, and slowly turned it. The door, as was to be expected after all, opened immediately; with a decisive blow I pushed it forward.


	12. My Room

Everything remained exactly as I left it, although a bit more...destroyed. The lavender-colored walls had all become grey for dust and peeled because of moisture; many of the paintings and posters depicting various celebrities attached to the walls had fallen to the ground and got all crumpled, and the drawings I painted on the wall had taken on a frightening expression to say the least. The only few other things that remained intact on the walls were the various wall shelves containing various trophies and hung medals from various artistic and sports competitions; among the sports ones, swimming, Krav Maga and fencing stood out in the first place, which I really liked. Other artistic medals were awarded to me for my skill in painting and sculpture, which unlike the sports I practiced as a hobby, and in which I participated whenever I wanted to do it. All this, together, never surpassed the second place. Really. I have never received a medal for the third place in any of the disciplines I practiced, and personally I am very proud of it.

I quickly looked around, and noticed that only the bed and part of my glass library had remained intact; everything else had gone mysteriously destroyed. I was particularly curious, so I turned to ask Kayo for her opinion. Only when I turned around, I found her staring at the ceiling besotted, and it didn’t surprise me at all.

I also looked up, and added mentally that even the ceiling had remained intact; intact and as bright as the vault of a cathedral. Since I was little I have always had a kind of passion for the stars and for everything connected to them, and as a gift for my 5 years my mother personally painted me a starry sky. She was very good at painting, like Dad, and I too had inherited this gift from both of them. It was so accurate that at night I always thought the ceiling was transparent, and since the painting with which my mother had painted them was luminescent in the dark often this starry sky accompanied my dreams. Even during my adolescence I always looked at that dark blue ceiling, the Moon and the stars that surrounded it, and I drew incredible calm from this landscape. Now that I was looking at it, it just seemed to be...empty, meaningless.

"Wow..." I heard Kayo whisper after a few minutes staring at the ceiling.

"Don’t look at it too much or you’ll get a stiff neck. I would invite you to lie down on the carpet, but as you see-" I pointed out with a vague gesture of my hand the empty and dirty floor, where there was to be the purple carpet of the past, "-there is no more one. Which makes me wonder what really happened here."

She seemed to ignore my indirect question. "I’ve been in space before, and what strikes me is that it’s all very accurate. I feel like I’m back on Thunderbird 3 with Alan."

"Ah, you mean the red rocket?" I answered, and then I stopped to try to remember one thing. "Wait a sec, but who is Alan?"

She stared at me one second too many. "He’s the youngest of the Tracys."

"And how do I know whose Tracy’s is the youngest."

"Seriously, you don’t remember anything anymore?"

"No, it's just never been my strong point remembering names and ages. That guy in the green shirt?"

"Do you know that this one particular of yours reminds me so much of someone? Anyway, yes, it is the 'guy' in the green shirt, his name is Alan. Remember that."

"Yes, Mother, yes." I stopped to see her look that wanted to burn me because of the nickname I used; I then proceeded to bat my eyelashes lovingly -and several times- to the point where she found herself forced to take her eyes off of me. "And anyway, since I’m gonna be on the island indefinitely, I’m definitely gonna remember all the names in the universe, you know?" That last sentence took on a sarcastic tone, and Kayo noticed, because she looked up at me with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile on her face.

It took her very little to draw her attention away from me, looking around like I did. "Uuuh, Krav Maga! It’s a little...violent, but I’m surprised you’re good at it! In fact, no-" she took one of the trophies displayed on the shelves very carefully, "-very good!"

I immediately noticed her enthusiasm for that specific sport. "Don’t tell me you like it..."

"Oh well, it’s one of the many sports I do accurately and like. I’m surprised you can practice it," she repeated, "if you want, we can practice together sometime."

"Yes, of course, because I particularly want to die these days. By the way, if you can get all the trophies and medals, I’d like to take everything home as a souvenir, please."

I no longer heard any reply from Kayo, since she was again busy looking around, so I took the opportunity to try to open the closet, or rather to say what was left of it, and after forcing the good door I managed to open it in part, I immediately saw what I was looking for; it was such a cute Versace outfit, consisting of a top, shorts and a sort of bathrobe, all in shades of yellow and with a baroque print. But I found everything smelly and musty, probably because of the humidity. Even all the other clothes were like that, so I gave up completely to the idea of taking them with me, convinced that not even a miracle would save them, putting them in the closet. I was just hoping to find this outfit around.

At one point I remembered something and shook my head sighing; I had spent so much time thinking about these trivial things that I forgot, indeed, we forgot, from my main mission, so I went back to Kayo who was looking at the few books I had left in the bookstore. I also approached by, briefly scrolling through the books, looking for a title vaguely similar to the stars and the '4 numbers to sleep', although I still didn’t know what that meant.

"Kayo," I asked her after a moment, "can we think of the riddle so we can get out of here as soon as possible? I’m not starting to feel so good." I lied, though not quite.

She looked at me apprehensively, and then nodded her head. "If you want, I’ll look for you and you can stay here and rest."

"You don’t know what to look for."

"Not even you." she stopped to look up. "But somewhere you can start."

I looked up too, smirking. "Yeah..."

"I don’t see a ladder around here, and the grappling hook can’t help us. So, you’re gonna get on my shoulders and we’re gonna try to find something in the ceiling."

"Do you really think there’s something in the ceiling?"

"It can be. Or it can be nothing. You go up in the meantime."

I nodded, and to lighten myself up a little bit I took off my purse and the sweatshirt I was wearing, remaining with a short-sleeved shirt that made me shiver, given the humid and winter climate. She knelt, and I climbed on her back, sitting on her shoulders. She got up, albeit with difficulty, and I lost balance risking to fall backwards; luckily I found a wall to lean on.

"I must admit...you’re very light..." she tried to convince me in between puffs.

"Are you sure?"

"Better me than you." she answered, beginning to walk slowly to make me feel the whole ceiling. And she was also right: my body was structured differently from hers. I was shorter and thinner than her, so lighter. Kayo, on the other hand, was more toned and certainly weighed a little more; if she had climbed on my shoulder we would have both fallen.

I went through the whole ceiling, I even slapped it, but I couldn’t find anything that could help me. I calmly descended from Kayo’s shoulders and informed her with a negative nod of the head.

"Well," she replied, moving her head and cracking her neck and then doing the same with her shoulders, "at least we tried. But now we have to look somewhere else."

"The bookcase in the living room!" I answered, relieved. "Maybe there’s some book there that talks about stars; maybe the clue to opening the safe is inside that book, so we can have picked up two birds with one stone." I leaned over to get the jacket that I had laid on the ground, beating it a bit to free it from the little dust that had accumulated, to then take also the purse. "So, shall we go down?"

"After you." she replied, already at the door. But neither of us noticed the little piece of ceiling that had fallen as soon as we left the room.

We went back down to the living room with a bit of effort, and we immediately began to search in the part of the library that remained intact; to make a long story short, we did not find anything about the stars or the 4 numbers that I used to sleep. What does it mean to sleep? When I was little I didn’t use phones or music marked with numbers to sleep, I used only...

"Bedtime stories!" I exclaimed, radiant.

Kayo jumped, looking at me angrily again. I forgot she didn’t like surprises. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"It's just that... now I know what are the 4 numbers I use to sleep. They are bedtime stories!"

"Are you sure about that?"

"Sure! Or at least I think so...why? What did you use to sleep when you were little?"

"Silence." Her response was quick and abrupt, and her face was gloomy. I must have hit a nerve.

"Uh...okay. Eh..." after that impulsive revelation I was a little uneasy. "... let’s try again!"

"Do you even know what you’re looking for?"

"This time yes. The fairy tales in question are the Little Prince, Snow White, Cinderella and an Italian fairy tale that I think was called Tredicino."

"Tredi-what?"

"Tredicino. It was Mom’s favorite, so she read it to me too when I was little. If I remember correctly, the tale speaks of a poor man who had 13 children; he did not know how to feed them, so he sent them on patrol through the fields." While I was talking, I looked again at the library in search of the famous titles. All the books were different from each other, but there were not many bedtime stories present. Almost all the books talked about botany, engineering...there was one book in particular that was not related to anyone else. Insects. "At one point, Tredicino and his children find a huge field and a woman who cultivates it, but she orders them to run and hide, because her husband is a magician and could eat his children."

"Wow, what an originality." Kayo said sarcastically.

"It’s a bedtime story, what do you expect?" I replied, walking away to find something somewhere else. I went to the couch to look under the pillows. "However, Tredicino and his sons are hiding, and the magician arrives. The wife gives him food and only when the magician has finished she tells him that Tredicino and his children are in the basement; the magician makes them come out, however, puts on the heads of Tredicino's children a red cap, and for his children a white cap. Tredicino suspected that there was something underneath, so he switched the hats of the boys; indeed when the magician awoke he killed his own children because they had the red cap on their heads." I stopped talking because of the dust of the couch that got into my nose and made me sneeze.

"That’s stupid. How can you not recognize your own children and kill them?"

"Bedtime story? Anyway," I continued looking elsewhere, since the couch had not given convincing results. "Tredicino, who had remained on guard, runs away with his sons, and wanders until he finds a servant of the king who was looking for him because the king had ordered him to steal the parrot of the magician from which he had just escaped. Tredicino agrees, only as he leaves the wizard’s house he finds him on the door and the situation...degenerates."

"Oh yes? What news!"

"Let’s say he tries to set him on fire, but Tredicino runs away and comes back to the king, who, however, instructs him to go back to the wizard’s house to steal a kind of blanket with many bells on it."

"Who knows how you can sleep with bells that make a hell of a noise every time you move." Kayo answered as she kept looking in some drawer. What surprised me most at the time was that she kept listening to me, and apparently also very interested, although I was telling her a fairy tale.

"Yeah. Anyway, to make a long story short, Tredicino breaks into the house during the night and steals the blanket from this magician, who when he wakes up is furious."

"And that's normal too! You enter in my house without permission and steal my blanket and my animal! I would have been furious too!"

"Eh, anyway, Tredicino comes back to this king with the blanket and he pays him handsomely for the work done, even if he orders him one last thing, namely to bring to the court the magician alive and well. Tredicino hesitant agrees, and after a little time spent thinking of a solution disguises himself and wears a fake beard, then goes back to the magician and explains to him that he killed Tredicino and that he needs wooden boards to make the coffin. These two start to make the coffin and Tredicino, with a trick, asks the magician to enter to see if the length of the coffin is right."

"Ingenious."

"Yes. However, Tredicino nails the coffin and brings it to the king who makes him rich for life."

"Interesting story." a voice different from ours answered, a male voice. I looked around, trying to figure out where that voice came from, and as soon as I saw a flashing light on Kayo’s suit and I approached it, an hologram of the red-haired of before appeared, making me jump again. I had to get used to this hologram thing, Ugh. "Weren’t you supposed to be shopping?"

"John!" Kayo exclaimed, and already so, without her having said much and without knowing her, I would say that she is very irritated.

Instead, I ask him another question. "Do you really like the story?"

"I don’t know it, but yes. Does Virgil know you’re at Alice’s house? This wasn’t supposed to be your main itinerary."

"No, and he doesn’t even need to know, or else he'll set an infernal bollocking for both of us."

John remained silent for a moment, perhaps deciding whether to say everything or not, but eventually sighed, nodding passively with his head. "Okay. Did you at least find what you were looking for?"

"Negative." Kayo sighed.

"Well...hurry up. There have been new reports of movement from the Hood."

"The Hood?" I thought out loud. "Isn’t that synonymous with sweatshirt? Hoodie?" I put my hand on my chin, thinking.

Kayo remained silent for a handful of minutes, to then nod stealthily to John and turning to me, while the hologram of the other man disappeared from view. "Look, I have to go. The Hood is not a sweatshirt, but a person. He’s someone who had and still has to deal with us. And not at all in a good way. You must have heard some earthquakes overnight."

"Well, look, these days I’ve been more in a coma, dead, or you know, I was asleep at night. Anyway, I understand. So I’m gonna stay here and look for a little more." I said, keeping a hand on my chin.

Kayo was immediate and very strict in answering. "Absolutely not! it’s too risky for you to be here alone!"

"But in no way I'll spend who knows how many hours on that flying thing, turning from one side to the other, while I could stay fine here and keep looking!" I said back angry, to then turn around and give her my back. "I’ll stay here. Period."

Kayo snorted annoyed, and I turned around for a moment to look at her face. It seemed that all of her neurons were having an internal debate in her brain. Once her rational side stopped waging war with the impulsive one, she stared at me. I turned my mouth to one side as I looked at her calmly. "So, I’m going now. For anything and every 15 minutes I want you to contact me to know that everything is fine."

My eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh, really? Can I really?"

She returned my look strangely. "Yes...? Of course you can."

"All right, when I'll find a messenger falcon I'll CONTACT YOU!" I replied irritated, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

"Ah, fuck, it’s true!" Kayo responded by meeting the palm of her hand with her forehead; she remained so for a second before looking down at John’s hologram, which began to float once again over her right wrist. The two communicated by simply looking at each other, then John nodded. Kayo pulled off that little black jacket she had over her suit and handed it to me. "It should be a holo projector, but it can also work as a communicator; use this to contact me on Thunderbird Shadow, and if you need to talk to someone else I will forward the call. All right?"

"Ok." I answered, putting on the jacket that, despite being short and sleeveless, surprisingly kept warm. "But then how are you gonna talk to the others?"

She simply responded by raising the left wrist on which John still floated. "Keep it always with you, never take it off, and for whatever you call me."

"It’s okay...although Virgil said to stay with you..."

"I made you an offer, and I think you can handle it just fine on your own." She laughed back, giving me her back and waving her hand as if to greet me, and then left the house. I was left alone.

"Ugh...we already couldn’t find anything in two, let myself alone." I whispered between me and myself, only to shake my head slightly, my curls flying in all directions. "Let’s get to work, I suppose." I stood in the middle of the room, undecided about where to go, when suddenly I felt a voice in the distance, a familiar voice...I looked down at Kayo’s jacket, expecting to find some lights or holograms, but of course I didn’t see any. I then looked around myself, straining my ears to hear that strange voice again. I finally walked towards the kitchen, but with extreme slowness, as if walking costed me a huge effort, and looking around in despair. The doors all gave signs of failure to the smallest touch, the walls were all scraped, the parquet had dampened and raised from the floor, in fact I risked several times to fall stumbling on it, the furniture was ruined and none of the items were in their place. It seemed as if someone had ransacked the house, nor did I know why, and all together it was a horrible sight. I felt that my sight was beginning to blur due to tears, so I walked faster. Instead of going to the kitchen, however, I stopped in the hallway, with my back to the now non-existent front door from which Kayo had just left, and looking at the stone stairs that led down to the cellar. I didn’t smell kimchi.

I rubbed my eyes to avoid bringing out any tears and searched through the whole jacket in search of some button or something that would allow me to call Kayo; after some attempts her hologram finally appeared; she was piloting Shadow.

"Alice, is there a problem?"

"Yeah, I’d like to know where the flashlight is in this thing."

But she kept a neutral face, almost confused. "Alice, I can’t hear you, your microphone’s off."

"And how do I turn it back on?"

"I can’t hear you! Try pressing the first button on the right side of your jacket."

I found said button and pressed it. "Can you hear me now?"

"Yes yes, now yes. So?"

"Please, I wanted to know where the torch is located in this garment, if I don’t disturb you too much." I asked her politely, of course, making irony.

"It’s that big thing on the left side." she said without the same education. "But what do you need it for?"

"I have to go down into the basement."

"Be careful not to be locked in!" she replied jokingly.

"My God, you’re so nice." I rolled my eyes.

"Comms off." and as she appeared, she disappeared. I still have to understand how this hologram story works.

In the meantime I thought to quickly go down the stairs that led me to the basement door. I pressed that big button that Kayo had shown me and all the environment suddenly lit up; I opened the door and officially entered the oldest point of the house without even looking back. The stench and the dust that greeted me were a straight punch in the nose, which made me cough for a few seconds. When I was finally used to the smell I was stabbed by something else: the basement was empty. Empty in the sense that there was nothing! There were no large earthenware pots and glass jars where mom kept the kimchi and the homemade pickles; there were no tools that dad had left there that had never been moved since; no wooden boards, rags and boxes stacked in a corner; no books I hoped to find in that dark and damp place, nothing. My lower lip began to tremble, and a thought crossed my mind like a flash in the clear sky: Mom had not prepared kimchi for a few years now. I don’t know how, but I found myself kneeling on the floor crying terribly, like when I was a little girl, losing my favorite stuffed animal.

In a way, I’d lost something, everything I had. I miss my mom, and I seem to hear her voice once again in the distance; I miss Dad’s tools with which I liked to play as a child, even if I was a failure in building things; I miss walking into this stupid room and stealing the kimchi Mom made and secretly eating it behind the big terracotta pot. I miss everything, and I don’t know how to let go of the memories I had here.

Suddenly I felt strange, light...as if I was a feather. I saw the room spinning around me, but strangely it didn’t bother me, in fact, I felt comfortable at that time. I blinked my eyes, and when I opened them again, I found myself lying on the floor, looking at the dust very closely. I felt light again, as if my soul was no longer in my body; the only heavy thing I felt were my eyelids. Maybe if I’d just closed my eyes for a second...

I suddenly woke up, and there was a deafening beep ringing in my skull. I tried to stop that noise until I realized I didn’t know what its source was, and to tell the truth not even because I was on the ground. One thing was for sure: my head was killing me. I stood up slowly, trying with all my strength to make the noise pass in the background, and in the meantime I rubbed my face with the palms of my hands slowly grunting, realizing that my face was still wet with tears, and also soft. Amazing how a couple of hours of crying are a perfect skin care against dry skin! I thought ironically, and then I tried to get up slowly, head permitting. Another thing that was severely damaging my head was the flashlight, which I awkwardly realized was still on and bright and, above all, pointed I don’t know how to my eyes.

Once I got up without any side effects, apart from a bit of nausea, I went to the door to go back up, to then realize that the burst of beeps had completely disappeared. I didn’t even notice...maybe it was Kayo trying to call me. When I managed to close the door behind me and finally extinguish the torch I went up the stairs and I arrived again in front of the entrance, where I found Kayo in front of me, pierced.

"What the hell were you doing!? I called you a bunch of times!"

"I tried too..." I lied through my teeth, trying to hide the fact that I passed out. "Uh...did you finish your mission in the end?" I added, trying to deflect the speech.

She rejected the attempt. "Did you at least find something in there?"

"Uh...no, but I haven’t been there long."

"Wouldn’t an hour be 'long' for you?"

"I didn’t realize, okay?" my voice started to rise, and I squeezed my fists until my knuckles turned white.

"Let’s do this, let’s look one more time and then we’ll get out if this house."

"Where are we going?"

"Have you checked the kitchen yet?"

My mind also suggested the kitchen, but my instincts led me elsewhere. "What if...we went back to my room?"

"But we already looked in there."

"If that’s the case you did it in the kitchen too. Listen, I think we should try my room again."

"Listen you, let’s not waste anymore time. It’s getting late and we still have to go shopping."

I remained silent, and she took it as a pretext to go to the kitchen; only I did not follow her, taking the opposite direction and going into the living room.

"Hey!" Kayo’s distant voice behind me became increasingly menacing and close, but I didn’t care a bit. In fact, I tried to re-climb up the rope, until I reached the top with a bit of difficulty. Once I got there I looked down at her, and she gave me a look in the middle between the curious and the withered, with an eyebrow raised. There was not even the need to tell her or ask her anything because she understood everything from my eyes. Once she too had climbed up and stopped next to me she looked at me again.

"Well, since we’re up here as you _k_ _indly_ proposed," she replied ironically, "what do you want to do now?"

"I thought you already knew." I replied, and headed straight for my room. As I entered, however, I found nothing strange; Kayo instead took the opportunity to look at the ceiling again.

"Mmm...something doesn’t add up."

"What?" I asked her as I walked towards her, who was in the middle of the room. As I took another step, I felt a slight creaking under my feet. Confused, I leaned over to get the little piece of paper on which I had walked over with the plaster, picking it up with my left hand. There was a piece of sky painted on it. "Is that what’s wrong?"

She briefly looked at the folded card, nodding. "Exactly." She gently pulled it out of my hands to then open it. On top of it there was written..." _In the library..._ 9-14-19-5-3-20-19?" we were both confused. "And what does that mean now?" Kayo was staring at me now.

In response, I raised my hands in self-defense. "What do I know? I literally know as much as you do!" I stopped to consider. "Doesn’t look like a phone number."

"Too long to be. It has an extra number." Kayo shook her head negatively. Meanwhile John had reappeared and was, what was he doing? Was he...touching the air? He was literally tapping the air. I almost came up to lay my nose on Kayo’s communicator. She, in turn, looked at me first, then at the communicator, then at me again, shaking her head confused, slightly raised eyebrows and frowny forehead, as if to say 'what the hell are you doing?'.

"He's touching the air." I said confused.

"No, I’ll explain later." she answered, now amused.

"It’s not even an IP address, I checked." John added confused.

I checked the piece of paper again. "It says... _in the library._ There are only two: this one in my room and the one in the living room." It was getting dark outside.

"We already checked that one in the living room. If we don’t find anything, we really have to go."

I didn’t listen to her, thinking. In the library...a book. So we were looking for another book again? Maybe it wasn’t a book, but something in a specific book or...the title of a book? I turned to Kayo.

"Do you have a pencil, a pen, something to write?" I asked her in a hurry.

She opened the holo notepad. "Dictate to me and I write."

"Write the numerical sequence of the piece of paper, and you, John, can you find the numerical order of the letters of the alphabet for me, please?"

"FAB. Maybe I know where you’re going with this." What does FAB mean? He went back to typing to the air, while Kayo dictated the numbers to him. The answer came in no time. "Insects."

I snapped my fingers, radiant. The only book that had nothing to do with the others! Kayo had not understood any of this, heading towards the bed, which now more than a bed was an empty and dusty mattress. She sat on it, making a little dust cloud, but what surprised me the most was...an exclamation of pain?

I ran to her. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"There is something under this mattress!" she exclaimed irritated. She lifted the mattress, and underneath...

"My books! You found them!"

"What the hell-"

"Let’s run down! I have the solution!" I said all excited, not even waiting for her answer, walking out of the room where I spent most of my life.

We went back down for the umpteenth time, heading to the bookstore. I immediately found the book that interested me, taking it. It just didn’t move from the library. On the contrary, it was the entire library that moved sideways, revealing what we both came for. The safe.

"We finally found what you were looking for."

"Now we just have to open it." I answered, opening the books I knew well, finding a number in each. I inserted the first combination that could be with those numbers but it didn’t work. I tried a second time and I managed to open the safe. There were only papers inside, nothing important at first glance. There was also a letter, perhaps for me. I put it in my purse without even paying it anymore attention. It would have waited. I took the papers and saw what was inside. Data on this phantomatic time machine that I didn’t understand well, checks, formulas...there was everything and more. "I don’t understand anything."

"Let’s take it anyway." Kayo answered, looking at what was written. "Are you ready to go now?" she asked, handing me the papers and looking at me. I couldn't see a thing in the house.

"Yes, let’s go." I answered, putting the papers in my purse. "Wait a minute. Do you have the little piece of paper?"

"Yes, there it is." She handed it to me. I went through the bag, surprised to find a pen inside. I looked for another piece of paper, transcribing the code of the book and the code of the safe. I then put that little piece on top of the 4 books that we had brought up and inserted everything in the safe, which closed with a slight click, the library that returned to its original place. I wrote the combination to the safe on the original sheet and put it back in my purse. "Now we can go. Let’s get out of here please."

She nodded, and we finally left the house. Going back to the outdoors made me feel like I was starting to breathe again after a period of apnea, as if I had resurfaced from the water just now. It was strange. The sky was dark, but there was still some light. The Moon was already shining in the sky, and that brought me back to something. "I want it just like here."

"Mh?"

"The room, on the island. I want it exactly like this one. At least this."

She remained silent for a moment. I turned to look at her seriously. She looked at me with the same intensity, and then nodded slightly. "I will provide."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long delay. i don't feel like going on anymore, at least for a bit. i'm sorry.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my original story, posted finally after a few years of indecision. Hope you enjoy it!


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